KNOWN for its delivery of meals from some of the most popular restaurants across major towns of the island, Innovative Menu Solutions Limited, which trades as 7Krave, is looking to feed its appetite for growth as it moves to further expand services and grow deliveries in the coming years.

Now making thousands of deliveries through a network of more than 100 team members comprising drivers, riders, along with other administrative and customer support staff, the entity established in 2015 by Rory White and four of his friends sought to plug a recognised gap in the market, with big hopes of connecting people to the local food community.

As CEO, White documents the company’s evolution which also stemmed from his personal experience of having a pregnant wife at home at the time who had a difficulty gaining access to the foods she was ‘kraving’, marking the turning point in his career path.

White — who had always been good with numbers and was dead set on pursuing a career in actuarial science — changed course when, with the help of friends, he became empowered to go after a novel entrepreneurial pursuit in response to what he found wanting in the local marketplace.

“The team started working on the mobile app, which is now 7Krave, to allow persons to easily find food in Jamaica — though not initially for delivery. However, having started the business we discovered that not only did our supporters want to find food, but… they also had this strong desire for a convenient food delivery service which had the ability to get the meals that they were craving delivered to them. There was no delivery service around then that offered the convenience of a food delivery service on a mobile app. As such, the feature for food delivery was added right before the launch,” White told the Jamaica Observer in detailing the company’s start-up, crediting co-founder and Chief Technical Officer Rhodrey Shaw as the brains behind the IT infrastructure, and his wife Shanalee White — who was once craving food — as the chief operating officer in charge of all operations, along with the support of other key staff, as the driving force behind the promising business.

Despite the hiccups and teething pains experienced at the onset of the business — from having to establish a reliable delivery network, or getting restaurants to collaborate, and securing adequate funding to setting up a user-friendly app — White, in describing the early days as “challenging yet exhilarating”, said it took much work from himself and the team to groom the operations and bring the business to its current level of success.

“We started with around 10 restaurants on board and one delivery bearer. Money was tight and Rory had to wear many hats, from software engineering, marketing, to answering customer queries, and sometimes delivering the meals himself. We bootstrapped the company to around 25 delivery bearers and 30,000 customers right before the COVID-19 pandemic. We now have over 400,000 customers operating in three regions across Kingston & St Andrew, Portmore and Ocho Rios,” White said.

Currently offering delivery service for more than 200 restaurants, including franchise favourites KFC and Pizza Hut among several others, the company, further doubling down on its delivery service capabilities, has since the pandemic also rolled out its 7KraveMart service from which it delivers a wide range of groceries and other bulk items for some of the island’s major distributors and retail chains — operating almost like a virtual supermarket.

“Now enjoying a 4.6 rating in both the [Google Play and Apple App Store] from approximately 15,000 combined reviews…we have seen tremendous growth since the time of our launch to market. Over time we have also added order tracking options, also laying an advanced logistics foundation, and are now moving closer to having approximately two million meals delivered before year end,” White said.

Touting the company’s strong community involvement and support of development programmes, the CEO said he is very excited about all its achievements to date and, even more so, about the upcoming plans for growth and expansion.

“We’re currently fully operational, with plans to expand to other local regions. New features are also now in the pipeline to be released in October 2023. We are also now having current dialogue about a ‘dark kitchen’ partnership through which we are to provide exclusive menu items.

“Our aim is to be the leading food delivery service in the Caribbean. With ongoing focus in technology, customer service, and key partnerships, we are optimistic about our growth prospects and believe that the best is yet to come,” White said.