CUSTOMER STORY
How Vida Kitchens doubled their revenue, space utilization, and clients.
An interview with Melissa Leavitt, the Kitchen Manager at Vida Kitchens.
About Vida Kitchens
In January 2017 Vida Kitchens gave new life to an old Las Vegas grocery store. Keeping the original signage and spacious floor plan, they opened the doors as a for-profit, shared-use commercial kitchen. Big enough for 5 food companies to work at one time, Vida Kitchens brings in multiple entrepreneurs into the kitchen at one time. They learn from each other and lean on the kitchen’s supportive management who helps these small food businesses get off the ground.
Vida Kitchens started using The Food Corridor in January 2018 – one year after opening. At that time they served 20 clients and were at around 20% space utilization. We interviewed Melissa Leavitt, the solo kitchen manager, about her decision to start using The Food Corridor.
Tell us about your operations before The Food Corridor?
“We attempted to make all these different programs work together. We had a Google Calendar that was kind of a mess. People would text me at 4:30am wanting to know if they could come in at 6am, and I wouldn’t see it until I was awake at 7am. We were making it work, but it was disorganized and taking up a lot of my time.”
"Being a solo kitchen manager, paperwork and scheduling took up a lot of my time. There was too much responsibility on me and not enough on my clients."
Melissa Leavitt
Vida Kitchens, Kitchen Manager
“Getting people to pay us money was a nightmare. We have a credit card machine in the office, but we lock our office. So I would have to schedule times for clients to come in and make payments. And for people that work regular 9-5 jobs, I was having to come in at 6 or 7pm to meet with them so they could make a payment. On top of that, we wouldn’t get paid in full until the end of the month.”
The Changes at Vida Kitchens
Since coming on The Food Corridor, Vida Kitchens more than doubled their revenue (125%). Their utilization increased from 20% to 60%, and they now serve 65 clients – more than tripling their clientele in a single year. While a large part of that growth comes from establishing their name, Melissa attributes the consistency of their income to The Food Corridor. Without it, she said she would have hit her management limit at half the number of clients they serve today.What were the biggest tasks taken off your plate since using The Food Corridor?
“Collecting money and making the schedule work! I can’t imagine playing Tetris with our schedule like I used to. As a kitchen with the capacity to have 5 companies in here at once, effective scheduling is paramount to making sure that we’re providing everything to our clients that we’ve promised. The Food Corridor allows my clients to have control over their own schedule and empowers them to be more aware of the time they’re using. Now I just spend a day or so reviewing invoices and getting after people to update their card information if it has expired or changed.”
“It was like gaining another employee with the amount of time that it freed up for me. Having The Food Corridor allows me to onboard more people and spend more time on advertising. It’s resulted in a direct increase in revenue.”
Melissa Leavitt
Vida Kitchens, Kitchen Manager
What’s your favorite part of The Food Corridor?
“The intuitive scheduling (with built-in cancellation policies) and the automatic billing! People also get really impressed when I show them the “community” tab. They see how many people are in the kitchen, and it gives them the chance to network with other food entrepreneurs in the area!”
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
“I also love The Food Corridor Customer Support team. Their responsiveness to feedback gives me the feeling that I’m part of something bigger than myself – a community that cares about people and listens to what they say.”
“We've never managed a kitchen before and it's been a wild ride. Without The Food Corridor, I know that we wouldn't have been able to grow as quickly as we have (while retaining most of my sanity)!”
Melissa Leavitt
Vida Kitchens, Kitchen Manager
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