Crave

Crave optimizes production operations and increases business revenue

Salma Hamidi

Co-founder
Crave works with chefs from around the world and get inspired by our travels to introduce authentic local flavours in their offerings.

Tell us about your story, how did you start your business?

Crave started as a hypothetical restaurant for a project in business school - and here we are today!

The idea was to create a healthy and great tasting option for fast food, something that wasn’t readily available at the time. As the market started adopting that trend, we realized we still offered something special that stood out amongst our competitors. As avid travellers, we’re adding flavours from authentic local cuisines from around the world to our fast and healthy options; we love exploring new flavours and offering new cuisine combinations.

True to our collaborative nature, we work with chefs around the world to bring authentic flavour to the inside of our boxes, as well as international artists to bring flavour to the outsides!

Did you have any concerns when first hearing about Ritual?

When Crave first partnered with Ritual, Ritual was in its infancy. We’d been approached by other companies and weren’t sure Ritual was right for us.

Would our customers become Ritual customers? How do we protect our profit margins? And, if Ritual does take off, how would our operation handle the increase in volume of orders and take care of our existing customers? It’s now several years later - we’ve kept our current customers happy, have had new customers become regulars, and have seen an incremental increase in our sales as promised thanks to Ritual!

How is Ritual working out for your business now?

From the companies we considered, we’re happy to say we chose the right partner. We did our research - we liked Ritual’s plan, we were impressed with the CEO’s background, and Ritual has stood the test of time. We’re very, very happy with both our growth and Ritual’s, and how they influence each other. From a partner support perspective, Ritual has delivered. We were concerned about our regulars, and the Ritual team worked with us to find a solution to bring those customers onto Ritual without Crave seeing incremental charges.

We love that Ritual has introduced Crave to new customers. We’ve seen an incremental raise in our numbers since partnering - something that wouldn’t have happened without Ritual. We continue to develop and adjust our labour and operations so we can always give our customers what they signed up for - by creating a dedicated pathway for Ritual customers, we can serve them quickly and still deliver a great in-store experience.

What’s the biggest value add Ritual has brought?

The customer data we have access to is huge. We can see how our customers feel about Crave with a good sample size, and have up-to-date info on our sales, customer satisfaction, and our speed of service compared to our competitors.

We also really love how fast Ritual is innovating. Whether it’s a new marketing initiative, new ways to bring in customers, or highlighting new menu items, Ritual gives us targeted programs to specific markets and demographics to help our business.

Anything else you’d like to add? General advice or learnings?

As a business owner, I understand the resistance to adding new technology and the toll it takes. However, the incremental sales, the data insights, and marketing opportunities that Ritual brings outweighs the cost. Ritual is one of the greatest partners we have!

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