Whether you’re looking to expand your food business or need space to create a new product for your thriving CPG company, a commercial kitchen can fit the bill. As you expand and/or add production, it is common to find your food business in the middle ground between outgrowing your starter production space while remaining too small to justify the expense of renting or buying a stand-alone building and outfitting it to be a commercial kitchen. A commercial kitchen facility provides you with many benefits and can be ready for you in days and not months.
What Is a Commercial Kitchen Facility?
A commercial kitchen facility is a facility that offers multiple private or shared kitchens for rent and that makes it easier to obtain the licenses and certifications you need to prepare food for sale while also providing the infrastructure and sometimes the equipment required for such production.
These commercial kitchens generally come in a variety of sizes, and some offer separate designated spaces to store your products and ingredients. Shared commercial kitchens allow you to schedule use of the space when you need it to cook and prep consumables while others use the same space when you aren’t. The next tier of commercial kitchen facilities rent out exclusive private space for longer periods often for at least a month, year or more.
A shared kitchen offers some of the same benefits as a private space in a commercial kitchen facility. However, with an hourly kitchen, you may need to deal with other companies needing and using the space at the same time you want to use it. Depending on demand, you may find yourself limited to the shared facility’s schedule and not find the flexibility you would get from a private space in a commercial kitchen facility.
For those working long hours, particularly as they scale up their business and production, a commercial kitchen facility with private spaces offers exclusivity and control over your workspace. You can find a situation that works best for your needs based on where you are in your growth path. These spaces are typically set up for food brands looking to scale their CPG offerings or run an R&D/test or commissary kitchen.
Kitchen Space For Rent, Food Production Spaces
Who Benefits From Private Commercial Kitchen Space Facilities?
You might be wondering if a private commercial kitchen facility is right for your company. You want to know when you are ready to leave your starter or shared kitchen space and move into a private commercial kitchen facility. Here are some rules of thumb for deciding when you will benefit from a private commercial kitchen rental:
- Spending 20+ hours a week on the business: If you’re working more than half-time in production, it is time to move the operation out of your starter kitchen. A commercial kitchen facility allows you to create larger batches and save time (and often save money as the hours you are paying for the shared facility begin to add up) while creating more products.
- Fulfilling orders from major buyers such as Whole Foods, Amazon, or Costco: You need to ensure that your kitchen meets their food safety standards and that you have the room and flexibility to fulfill all of your orders. Major buyers will be more likely to increase their orders if you prove to be a reliable producer working in a wholesale facility that meets their strict production standards.
- You are ready to expand sales channels: In order to grow your business beyond farmer’s markets and other more limited channels, you need the space to accommodate wholesale production with all of the right licenses and certifications for selling to major buyers. A private commercial kitchen facility is a way to do this quickly and affordably.
- Looking for a commissary for multiple restaurant locations: Preparing food for multiple locations means preparing large batches and a commercial kitchen has the space and infrastructure (including hood systems, on-site storage, and other equipment) to supply all of your locations. A commercial kitchen provides flexibility with far lower investment costs than building out your own stand-alone commissary.
Why Renting in a Shared Kitchen Space Is More Cost-Effective Than Building a Commercial Kitchen
When you rent commercial kitchen space, you only pay for the area you’re going to use. You don’t need to spend time looking for a space and the expense of outfitting it. Shared commercial kitchen facilities typically don’t require a long-term lease. You can pay for the actual time you’re going to use the space so that you aren’t paying rent on space that you only use occasionally.
When you use an hourly commercial kitchen, it often comes equipped with the cooking equipment you need already in place. Renting hourly kitchen space is an easy way to save money as you get started in your food business that you can reinvest in the growth of your company.
Additionally, when you have outgrown the hourly kitchen and are ready to rent an exclusive space in a private commercial kitchen facility, that choice will still save more than 90% of the time and cost of finding, renovating, and/or building your own production space. Private commercial kitchens provide the key infrastructure you need in your own exclusive space in a move-in ready condition. Because it is your own space, you can configure it how you need, bring in your own equipment, operate according to your own schedule, and produce in accordance with all of the specifications your products require (gluten-free, kosher, organic, etc).
Amped Kitchens Can Help Your L.A. or Chicago-Based Business Grow by Providing Private Commercial Kitchen Space with Many Valuable Amenities
You might think that all commercial kitchen spaces are essentially the same. However, Amped Kitchens can provide you with a level of professionalism, support, and extra amenities that you usually don’t find in other spaces.
Thousands of Square Feet of Storage
We offer ample dry, cold, and frozen storage for your ingredients, packaging, and finished products.
An Onsite Logistics Team for Deliveries
An onsite logistics team to handle deliveries is key to efficient operations. You can rely on the Amped Kitchens team to accept your deliveries and place them where you can easily locate them when you’re ready to use the items. They also staff the loading docks to be sure your shipped items are picked up. This will extend the efficiency of your own team dramatically.
Wide Variety of Production Spaces
At Amped, we know that your business isn’t a one-size-fits-all business, so we offer a variety of production spaces. From square footage to included amenities like walk-in coolers or larger hoods, our commercial kitchen space comes in all shapes and sizes in order to meet your unique production requirements.
Our Largest Spaces Are as Much as 10 Times the Size of Our Multi-Tenant Competitors
If your operation is scaling quickly, it can be hard to find a commercial kitchen facility that can accommodate your growth. Many of our competitors assume that larger operations will rent a traditional 200-300 sq. ft. commercial space for their kitchen. We’re ready to accommodate your needs for considerably larger spaces with spaces topping out at close to 2000 square feet. And because of the efficiency of those spaces, our tenants report getting the same productivity as a space 5-10x larger in a stand-alone facility
Greater Flexibility for Expansion
Because the future in a business like food is rarely predictable, the more options and flexibility you have, the better position you will be in to meet the unexpected. When your customer sends you that really large order or you are ready to expand your product offerings, you want to be in a facility that lets you embrace these new opportunities. At Amped Kitchens when you outgrow your current space, we will often have a larger space to accommodate your expansion.
A Larger and More Varied Community of Food Makers
When you are in a multi-tenant facility like Amped Kitchens, you join a large and varied community of food makers who often work together and who collectively represent a great source of knowledge, contacts, and assistance. The Amped Kitchens community of food makers frequently collaborate by purchasing collectively, buying from each other, developing new projects together, and sharing networking resources.
Years of Successful Operation of Production Facilities
We have years of experience operating a commercial kitchen facility. It’s our goal to partner with your company to help you grow and become more successful too.
Offers the Gold Standard of Cleanliness and Efficiency
The health and well-being of your customers are important to you. We go above and beyond to help ensure that your commercial kitchen space can meet the highest standards for commercial food production. We also know how to ensure that your supplies are received and ready for you when you need them.
At Amped Kitchens, we’re ready to help you find your very own, exclusive commercial kitchen space to help you expand. Contact us today to learn more.
