Cheetah, a San Francisco-based foodservice distributor focused on connecting restaurant operators with small, local vendors, is seeking to expand nationwide.
The company, founded in 2015, currently offers next-day delivery to several thousand restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area from a 70,000-square-foot warehouse in Pleasanton, California, and is preparing to restart its operations in the Dallas market, where it also has a warehouse, after suspending delivery there during the pandemic.
The goal is to continue expanding to new markets to turn Cheetah into a nationally known restaurant supplier, both through acquisitions and organic growth, said Vanessa Famighetti, content marketing analyst at the company.
Cheetah seeks to differentiate itself from other restaurant distributors with its app-based model, which allows restaurants to place orders until midnight for next-day delivery, six days a week. It offers what it describes as an “Amazon-like” shopping experience for restaurants, complete with personalized product recommendations.
Another key feature is what Famighetti described as Cheetah’s transparent pricing structure, with no volume discounts or price negotiations.
“The price you see on the app is the same price everyone pays, whether you have one restaurant or 1,000 restaurants,” she said. “We don’t believe prices should be negotiated upon.”
Cheetah does offer a membership plan that allows restaurants to earn cash back for reaching certain purchasing thresholds and provides other benefits.
It specifically seeks out small, local vendors, especially mission-driven brands that focus on health and sustainability, said Famighetti. It scours farmers’ markets and other venues to find new items that it can offer to its restaurant customers, and it then promotes both the products and the restaurants that buy them through its social media channels.
“We are helping educate the consumer about some of these fantastic ingredients and the story behind them, and we also educate the restaurants about how to use these ingredients,” she said.
Consumers have become increasingly knowledgeable about the food supply chain, Famighetti said, and are seeking out restaurants that offer dishes made with locally sourced, sustainable, and better-for-you ingredients. Offering these items allows restaurants to drive better pricing and profit margins, she said.
In addition to carrying products from small, local vendors, Cheetah also carries a full line of mainstream products for restaurants, Famighetti said, although the company’s goal is to shift its restaurant customers to sourcing as many local, specialty brands as possible.
Among the local companies that Cheetah has worked with is Donna’s Tamales, a maker focused on sustainable sourcing that began procuring some of its ingredients, including masa and plant-based fillings, through Cheetah. The company has since begun supplying its tamales, which include both meat- and plant-based options, to several restaurants through the Cheetah platform.
Sinto Gourmet, a maker of kimchi and other Korean foods, is another supplier in the San Francisco area that offers its products to local restaurants through Cheetah. The company was recently profiled in an article on fermented foods on Cheetah’s website and in a video posted on Cheetah’s Instagram account.
Hyunjoo Albrecht, founder of Sinto Gourmet, said her products reflect recipes she learned as a child growing up in Korea before she came to the U.S. She seeks to offer more natural, better-for-you alternatives to commercial products currently available, she said in the video.
By focusing on smaller, mission-driven brands and the restaurants that want to work with them, Cheetah is able to bring like-minded entrepreneurs together, said Famighetti.
For example, Better Chew, a maker of plant-based comfort foods, including analogs of fried chicken, fried fish, and shredded steak, was able to connect with local food truck operator Vegan Mob through the Cheetah platform, she said. Better Chew seeks to provide healthy alternatives for African-American consumers and others seeking to eat a more plant-based diet, which aligns with the mission of Vegan Mob, which specializes in plant-based BBQ and soul food dishes.
In addition to its planned geographic expansion, Cheetah is also developing a proprietary inventory replenishment solution for its restaurant partners, Famighetti said.
The company recently secured $60 million in a Series C round of funding, for a total of $126 million altogether, according to Crunchbase.
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