- Uber (NYSE:UBER) Eats drops its plan to operate its own food delivery kitchens as the company works to cut costs.
- In late 2018, Uber opened an Eats Delivery Hub in Paris that rented out kitchen space to restaurants wanting to make delivery food for Eats.
- Uber quietly shut the Hub at the end of 2019.
- Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, head of Uber Eats, tells FT: "At this point, we don’t have a desire ourselves to own real estate. We’ve had a few pilots, but no intention at this stage to start our own proprietary network of dark kitchens, or warehouses . . . or however you call them.";
- Uber will instead focus on convincing existing restaurants to create new menus and brands to be prepared at the same location.
- Rival DoorDash (DOORD) opened its first delivery kitchen last October in the San Francisco Bay Area. The kitchen is currently at full capacity with six tenants.
- Related: In last month's Q1 report, Uber reported Eats bookings growth of 54% Y/Y, which helped offset the 3% drop in Rides bookings.
- Uber shares are down 4% pre-market to $30.96 amid investor concerns about the growing number of coronavirus cases.