How to Start a Ghost Kitchen from Your Existing Commercial Kitchen

Before you launch anything, you need an honest assessment of your current setup. Not every kitchen can support a second brand without changes. The goal is to run a ghost kitchen alongside your existing operation, not instead of it.

Start by looking at your capacity during off-peak hours. If your kitchen is quiet between 2pm and 5pm, that is dead time you could monetise. If you are already stretched during Friday evening service, adding more orders will create problems, not profit.

• Audit your equipment — do you have enough fryer capacity, oven space, or hob rings to run a second menu simultaneously? Identify bottlenecks before they become problems during service.
• Check your prep space — you will need a dedicated area for packing delivery orders. Even a small table with shelving for containers, bags, and labels makes a difference.
• Review your food hygiene rating — a rating of 4 or 5 is expected. Anything lower will undermine customer confidence before you even start.
• Check licensing requirements — in the UK, each food business operating from a premises needs to be registered with the local authority. If your ghost kitchen brand is a separate legal entity, you may need a separate registration. Contact your local environmental health office to confirm.
• Consider your lease terms — some commercial leases restrict the types of food business you can operate. Check that a delivery-only brand does not breach your agreement.

If the answer to most of these is positive, your kitchen is ready. If not, the investment to get there is usually modest — often just some shelving, a label printer, and a few hundred pounds worth of packaging supplies.

The biggest mistake new ghost kitchens make is simply copying their dine-in menu. Delivery is a fundamentally different experience. A beautifully plated risotto that arrives as a lukewarm, congealed lump will generate refund requests, not repeat customers.

Build your menu for the journey, not the kitchen. Every item needs to survive 20-30 minutes in a bag and still look and taste good when the customer opens it. Fried chicken, burgers, curries, noodle dishes, and wraps travel well. Delicate salads, anything with a crispy coating that steams in a box, and dishes that need to be served immediately are risky.

• Keep the menu tight — 15 to 25 items is the sweet spot. A focused menu means faster prep, less waste, and easier inventory management. Customers facing 80 options often order nothing.
• Price for delivery margins — your food cost should be 28-32% of the menu price. Factor in packaging (typically 50p-£1.50 per order) and any delivery costs you absorb. Most ghost kitchens price 10-15% higher than equivalent dine-in.
• Create meal deals and bundles — a burger, fries, and drink for £12.99 increases average order value. Customers love perceived value, and bundles simplify their decision.
• Use cross-sell items — sides, drinks, and desserts are high-margin add-ons. Make them visible and easy to add. A £2.50 portion of fries costs you 40p to make.
• Test before you commit — run a soft launch with a small menu and expand based on what actually sells. Data beats gut feeling.

Smooth operations are what separate profitable ghost kitchens from chaotic ones. You need a clear, repeatable process from the moment an order arrives to the moment it leaves your kitchen.

The order flow is everything. An order comes in via your ordering system. It gets printed or displayed on a screen. A ticket is created. The food is prepared, checked, packaged, labelled, and placed in a dispatch area. The driver picks it up. The whole process should take 15-20 minutes for most orders.

• Set up a separate dispatch station — a table near the exit with bags, containers, cutlery packs, napkins, and printed labels. This is your packing line. Keep it stocked and organised.
• Invest in proper packaging — leak-proof containers for wet dishes, vented containers for hot crispy items, insulated bags for temperature control. Budget roughly £1-£1.50 per order for packaging.
• Label everything clearly — order number, customer name, and contents on every bag. When you have six orders waiting for drivers, clear labelling prevents mix-ups.
• Separate your workflows — if you are running the ghost kitchen alongside dine-in service, use colour-coded tickets or a different printer. Nothing derails service faster than confusing a table order with a delivery order.
• Decide on delivery logistics — will you use your own drivers, a third-party courier service, or both? Own drivers give you more control but require vehicles and insurance. Courier services charge per delivery but handle everything.

A ghost kitchen has no shopfront, no signage, and no walk-in traffic. Every single customer has to find you online. That means your digital presence is not just marketing — it is your entire storefront.

• Set up your own ordering website — this is your most important asset. A branded ordering page where customers can browse your menu, place orders, and pay directly. No commission, no middleman. This should be live before anything else.
• Claim your Google Business Profile — even without a customer-facing premises, you can list your ghost kitchen on Google. Set your business type as delivery/takeaway, add your delivery area, upload photos of your food, and link to your ordering page. This is where most local food searches start.
• Build social media profiles — Instagram and Facebook are essential for food businesses. Post photos of your dishes, behind-the-scenes content, and your ordering link regularly. Join local community Facebook groups and introduce your brand.
• Consider aggregators for initial discovery — platforms like Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat charge 15-35% commission, but they put you in front of thousands of local customers immediately. Some ghost kitchens use aggregators for the first 3-6 months to build awareness, then gradually shift customers to direct ordering.
• Leaflet your delivery zone — old-fashioned but effective. A well-designed A5 leaflet with your menu highlights, a launch offer, and a QR code linking to your ordering page. Budget around £100-£200 for 5,000 leaflets including design and print.

The financial advantage of a ghost kitchen from an existing premises is clear: your rent is already paid, your equipment is already there, and your staff are already on payroll. The incremental cost of adding a delivery brand is relatively low. But you still need to track the numbers carefully.

Know your true cost per order. Add up food cost, packaging, any delivery driver cost, payment processing (typically 1.5-2.5%), and a fair allocation of utilities and rent. For most ghost kitchens operating from an existing space, the fully loaded cost per order is £6-£10, depending on cuisine and average order value.

• Allocate rent fairly — if the ghost kitchen uses your premises for 4 hours a day, allocate roughly 15-20% of rent to it. This gives you a realistic picture of profitability.
• Track packaging costs obsessively — they creep up fast. A typical delivery order costs 80p-£1.50 in packaging. At 50 orders a day, that is £200-£375 a week. Buy in bulk and review suppliers quarterly.
• Compare commission costs — if you are on aggregators paying 30% commission, a £20 order nets you £14. The same order through your own website at 2% payment processing nets you £19.60. Over 100 orders a week, that is a difference of £560.
• Calculate your break-even point — add up all your fixed monthly costs (rent allocation, tech, marketing) and divide by your average profit per order. If your fixed costs are £800/month and you make £8 profit per order, you need 100 orders per month to break even — roughly 3-4 per day.
• Know when to scale — once you are consistently hitting 20+ orders per day with good reviews and repeat customers, it is time to think about extending hours, expanding your delivery zone, or launching a second brand. Do not scale before the first brand is stable.