Running a restaurant requires more than just focusing on cooking. There are many things to take care of, such as serving in the hall, delivery, accounting, and customer management. Monthly Kitchen (Monkey), led by CEO Kim Hyeok-gyun, provides a solution to those considering starting a business. It aims to be a so-called gourmet restaurant editing shop where ‘Monkey does the business, and the owner only cooks.’
At noon on the 27th, at the Monkey Seoul City Hall branch, at lunchtime, the inside of the store was packed with office workers working on their personal projects on their laptops and eating salads, customers choosing their favorite menus with their team members, and delivery people picking up their menus. In the case of popular stores, they even temporarily blocked app orders due to the flood of orders.
‘Monthly Kitchen’ is a mission targeting the subscription economy market. ‘Subscription’, which used to mean purchasing and reading newspapers and magazines for a set period of time, now means all acts of regularly consuming products, services, and content. As the meaning of the subscription economy changes and expands, Monkey is also in its heyday.
Kim Hyuk-gyun, CEO of Monkey, who met with World Biz & Sports World, looked back on the beginnings of Monkey and said, “I wanted to remove even a little bit of the shadow cast over the domestic self-employed market.” This was because he sympathized with the difficulties faced by self-employed people, who are still struggling even after the COVID-19 period.
◆’Digital Transformation’ that Reduces Risk and Increases Efficiency
CEO Kim said, “Restaurants are not simply places to buy and sell food. The mere existence of a good restaurant can revitalize a local community.” He added, “If we lose competitiveness and decline due to external factors such as rising labor costs, what we will lose is not the restaurant, but memories.”
According to the National Statistical Office, the national restaurant business closure rate last year was 10%. CEO Kim judged that the biggest difficulties in the domestic restaurant business were ‘burden of facility investment costs’ and ‘lack of digital infrastructure’. He wanted to improve capital risk and low efficiency through digital transformation. This is why Monkey is pursuing ▲innovation in startup methods (shared kitchens) ▲innovation in operation methods (all-in-one digitalization) ▲innovation in payment methods.
The delivery fee, which soars during high demand hours, is also a burden to consumers. On the other hand, Monkey provides free delivery service in nearby areas. CEO Kim said, “As the burden on consumers increases, the criticism the market receives increases. In the end, it will lead to consumers turning away,” and explained, “Monkey provides free delivery service within a certain distance when ordering through its own ordering and delivery app, Monkey App, to reduce the burden on consumers.”
Here, we also provide a personalized service that allows you to set meal times and pickup times through the Monkey app, and a service that allows you to set delivery and departure times based on arrival times. This is in line with the tendencies of today’s generation, who respect each person’s individuality even in menu selections and want to keep their meal times to themselves.
The app service was a solution to the limitations of meal times. CEO Kim said, “Many restaurants have difficulty responding to the large number of orders during peak hours because the size of the store is small,” and emphasized, “We added a reservation function to the app based on these concerns. You can quickly receive menus from various restaurants.” The reservation service, which is available even when you visit the restaurant, is playing a big role in reducing waiting times and increasing turnover.
The main role of the head office is to analyze and provide data such as demand forecasting through AI, integrated management of orders and sales, etc. The restaurant owner can focus only on cooking. Regarding the demand forecasting service based on big data machine learning, CEO Kim said, “We can reduce food material loss by predicting the next day’s order quantity by delivering data calculated by menu and time period.” This is a way to overcome the main concerns of restaurant business owners: space, production, and demand limitations.
Customer service is also handled by the headquarters. If you sign up for the app, you will be given a coupon, and various menus can be selected with promotions such as daily discounts and points. Coupons or cash are also provided based on the CRM system (Customer Relationship Management). According to Monkey, the stores in the store are showing efficiency of more than 6 rounds during the lunch peak.
◆ Growth of the subscription economy… from restaurants to distribution to fintech
Customers who visited the store were ordering various menus according to their tastes, just like a ‘food court’. I asked which menu was the most popular among office workers among the hundreds of menus. CEO Kim said, “According to a recent survey of six branches, curry took first place,” and “I analyzed that the synergy between the increasing popularity of Japanese food and its cost-effectiveness was created.” Baekban took second place, and third place was rice bowls with customizable toppings. Representative Korean dishes kimchi jjim and kimchi jjigae took fourth place. Regarding this, CEO Kim explained, “As the recession continues, a culture of considering cost-effectiveness has taken hold even for lunch. In particular, the popularity of K-foods that provide both nutrition and cost-effectiveness, such as kimchi jjim, kimchi jjigae, baekban, and rice bowls, is on the rise.”
One of Monkey’s brand catchphrases is ‘Startup in the 10 million won range’. According to Statistics Korea, the average cost of starting a business is about 170 million won. This is an attractive number for those considering starting a business. Monkey’s operating structure, which rents all necessary facilities such as halls, kitchens, kiosks, and POS, reduces the burden of management costs. By using agency services, labor costs required for hall management and dishwashing are also reduced, making it possible to start a business in the 10 million won range, excluding the deposit.
To celebrate the 5th anniversary of its launch, a promotion of ‘0 won rent’ for one year is also being held upon signing a contract. This is the idea of CEO Kim, who wants to inject vitality into the stagnant restaurant industry along with the self-employed.
Global statistics firm Statista forecasted that the global subscription economy market size will grow by more than 18% annually, from approximately $650 billion (KRW 903 trillion) in 2020 to $1.5 trillion (KRW 2,085 trillion) in 2025. Accordingly, Munkey launched its US corporation, ‘Munkey USA’, in 2022 and is operating ‘Munkey Orders’, an integrated store operation solution tailored to local conditions.
In the case of the self-developed Munchie Force, the fee price is automatically included when paying by card and excluded when paying in cash. It also has an ‘Anti-Theft’ function to prevent employee embezzlement. CEO Kim said, “The ‘Hand Held’ device is designed to prevent order omissions and payment errors, and the KDS that checks order information can be connected wirelessly. Its strengths include digitalization of order information and remote support.”
Starting with the digitalization of the restaurant industry, the company opened the Yeoksam Station branch in 2018 and currently operates 6 branches and about 130 stores nationwide. But it doesn’t end there. It plans to expand its business areas to restaurants, distribution, and fintech, centered on the all-in-one ecosystem it has built so far. He said, “We are about to launch a new table order product. It will be far superior to existing products that were at the level of home appliances, as it is a service optimized for the store environment developed as an integrated HW (hardware) and SW (software).”
Reporter Jeong Ga-yeong jgy9322@segye.com
Source: www.segyebiz.com
