Kitchen City
ArtemisPlus Express Inc., with a registered trade name of Kitchen City, is the leading food solutions provider in the Philippines. The business started in 1999 as an operator of smaller canteens of electronics and manufacturing companies in South Luzon. It then expanded its operations by servicing hospitals, hotels, schools, offices, and BPOs, and has eventually ventured into institutional catering services.
With a vision to raise the food service standards in the Philippines, Kitchen City is continuously building its business across the Philippines. Currently, Kitchen City has a workforce of over 2,400 people and 82 outlets serving over 100,000 meals per day. In September 2020, a Philippine-listed investment company, Macay Holdings Inc. acquired ArtemisPlus Express to enter the food service industry. Macay is the parent company of ARC Refreshments (RC Cola ), and an affiliate of Zest-O Corporation.
Artemisplus Express operates a modern central commissary in FTI Complex that constantly develops new and creative food concepts, food packaging, and menu cycles at various price points. Commissary and Warehouse facilities include top-of-line blast freezing equipment, a fleet of Combi Ovens, industrial cooking equipment, walk-in cold storage, container vans, refrigerated trucks with GPS tracking devices, and metal detectors. The commissary process is aligned with international food safety and sanitation standards such as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Occupational Health and Safety Standards, and the updated Infection Control Protocols to prevent transmission of the COVID-19 virus at the workplace. The Food Safety Auditors in charge per shift regularly verify the implementation of these guidelines. Kitchen City has a vendor management inventory system, and stocks inventories with two weeks buffer including a support system for Business Contingency Measures of the company and client requirements. Its refrigerated container vans also operate without power interruption. To further enhance the efficiency of its supply chain, the Company makes use of off-site cold storage with a third party and has also established a long-term partnership with 3rd party trucking companies.
The Company adopts advanced technologies to maintain food quality as it reaches the end consumers. For outlets with reheating facilities, meals are blast frozen, while the rest are freshly cooked right before delivery. A millennial set-up is also installed in certain outlets with limited space. This makes use of food storage that is space-efficient and an electronic display of the available food instead of the conventional cafeteria display.
On March 2020, to be able to continuously serve the existing clients as well as provide alternative meal options to the consumers for the new normal setup, ArtemisPlus Express launched the “Kitchen City Frozen Meals” which is the ready-to-heat frozen meals lineup of the company and open for deliveries at different locations in Greater Manila Area. This new business model also encouraged the utilization of cashless payment transactions and expanded frozen meals options for the consumers who wanted to enjoy delicious Filipino favorite viands such as Beef Caldereta, Kare-Kare, LechonPaksiw, Laing and even Leche Flan and pasta sauces at the safety of their homes. On December 2020, Kitchen City Frozen Meals launched its first outlet store at Sikatuna, Quezon City followed by additional three (3) sites in the first quarter of 2021.
