A Wonder van parked outside of a customer’s home. Each Wonder vehicle is staffed with one chef who preps the meals before bringing them to the front door.
Source: Wonder
Whether Americans are looking to order a quick bite from a local fast-food chain, or they want to feel like they’re eating at a five-star restaurant from the comfort of the living room, Marc Lore wants to redefine at-home dining.
The entrepreneur is finally going public about his latest e-commerce venture: A business that’s part food truck, part ghost kitchen coupled with a DoorDash and Uber Eats rival.
The former head of Walmart’s e-commerce operations in the U.S. has teamed up with Scott Hilton, who served as chief revenue officer of Walmart’s U.S. digital arm, to debut Wonder Group, Lore wrote in a LinkedIn post Tuesday. Lore is Wonder Group’s CEO, while Hilton serves as CEO of Wonder, a division within the holding company that oversees a fleet of trucks with mini kitchens inside.
CNBC reported on Lore’s and Hilton’s involvement with Wonder in May, when the business was operating in stealth mode in the affluent town of Westfield, New Jersey. The duo has since launched a delivery service for local restaurants, called Envoy, which is very similar to platforms such as Grubhub and Seamless. The two businesses operate side by side within Wonder Group.
“It’s really a one-stop shop for all cooked food,” said Lore in a Zoom interview. “And we think there’s a real chance to have a winner-take-all in this market. … You don’t really need another app.”
Next year, Lore and Hilton plan to bring Wonder and Envoy to Westchester County, New York, parts of Connecticut, northern and central New Jersey, as well as a portion of New York City. Their ultimate goal is to expand nationwide, by targeting communities with dense populations. Lore said the company plans to have 1,200 to 1,300 mobile kitchens roaming the Northeast next year, and to triple that by 2023. It has about 60 mobile kitchens operating to date.
‘On-demand home dining’
Hilton’s vision for Wonder is to give U.S. households access to fresh-cooked meals from top chefs in all parts of the country.
The idea is that someone living in upstate New York could order the famous cheesesteak sandwich from Atlanta-based Fred’s Meat and Bread. Or someone in New Jersey could order a wood-fired Margherita pizza from Nancy Silverton’s Pizzeria Mozza, which is based in Los Angeles. Wonder partners with select restaurant owners, including Bobby Flay and Jonathan Waxman, to gain exclusive rights to recreate items on their menus.
“Wonder, in short, is a food and tech company,” said …….
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/07/marc-lore-plots-us-expansion-of-wonder-group-food-delivery-biz.html