Ziad Kamel, CEO and founder of Cloud Restaurants is an effervescent entrepreneur with an insatiable passion for the hospitality sector and an untampered enthusiast that is best portrayed in his brands: Go! Greek, Go! Healthy, Go! Pasta, Go! Chinese, Go! Noodle, Go! Risotto & Pasta.
With a life motto such as “Stay active. Be kind. Eat well”, HN tries to keep up with the fast-paced restaurateur whose enthusiast is contagious.
1. How many branches do you own and where are they located?
14, all of which are in the UAE.
2. How do you plan to adapt to and recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and what do you expect to be the ‘new normal’ in its aftermath?
The ‘new normal’ for the restaurant industry after Covid-19 will be a mix of old and new strategies. Old strategies will include maintaining liquidity, managing cashflow and having a healthy operating cash buffer of at least six months, lowering fixed overheads and shifting investments to low capital expenditure opportunities. New strategies, meanwhile, will encompass innovating offerings online, shifting the sales mix from dine-in to pick-up and delivery, adding revenue streams, like cook-it-yourselfhome- kits and catering, and developing 100 percent delivery-only businesses.
3. What is the highlight of your year?
Growing our Cloud Restaurant business from one brand to six and increasing orders from 1,000 per month to 12,000, all while remaining profitable.
4. How is your restaurant going green?
I believe sustainability must represent a core value for every business and for every household. Cloud Restaurants is going green by using only the most sustainable food delivery packaging across all our facilities.
5. What trends do you forecast?
The year 2020 will witness the rise of the food delivery business globally, with growth and innovation in cloud restaurants, cloud kitchens, technology and logistics.
6. What are your upcoming projects?
We’re developing and launching our Cloud Restaurant brands in my home country – the UAE – and internationally.
Rita Ghantous is a hospitality aficionado and a passionate writer with over 9 years’ experience in journalism and 5 years experience in the hospitality sector. Her passion for the performance arts and writing, started early. At 10 years old she was praised for her solo performance of the Beatles song “All My Love” accompanied by a guitarist, and was approached by a French talent scout during her school play. However, her love for writing was stronger. Fresh out of school, she became a freelance journalist for Noun Magazine and was awarded the Silver Award Cup for Outstanding Poetry, by The International Library of Poetry (Washington DC). She studied Business Management and earned a Masters degree from Saint Joseph University (USJ), her thesis was published in the Proche-Orient, Études en Management book. She then pursued a career in the hospitality industry but didn’t give up writing, that is why she launched the Four Points by Sheraton Le Verdun Newsletter. Her love for the industry and journalism led her to Hospitality Services - the organizers of the HORECA trade show in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan, as well as Salon Du Chocolat, Beirut Cooking Festival, Whisky Live and other regional shows. She is currently the Publications Executive of Hospitality News Middle East, Taste & Flavors and Lebanon Traveler. It is with ultimate devotion for her magazines that she demonstrates her hospitality savoir-faire.
