Coozih Shared Kitchen

Unemployment have been a major issue in Brazil, for recent years, and will aggravate due to Covid-19 restrictions. Coozih will offer structure for food segment professionals, to be independent and explore market opportunities based on each ones' own knowledge and capabilities, while offering support and networking base to build a business through entrepreneurship. Coozih will offer not only the physical space and equipment, but also allow production in a place that attends all local legal and sanitary obligations, and connect professionals from different areas, from local food producers, to marketing, accountancy, nutritionists, social media developers, and all different areas that are relevant to build a food company. On a larger scale, the solution will allow for professionals to develop their business, create jobs, support local professionals and food producers.

In the world, unemployment is a problem that affects 176 million people, 7,7% of the eligible workforce.

Unemployment in Brazil affects 12 million people, which corresponds to an unemployment rate of approximately 12% of eligible population. 

In recent data, collected before the Covid-19 crisis, unemployment rates in Brazil were showing slight evolution, based heavily on migration of workforce from formal market, to entrepreneurial initiatives, since job creation in the formal market continued to decrease.

There's been growth in the food segment, based on entrepreneurship, with domestic production. While bringing positive economic impact, this type of business lacks quality control, which is very relevant, considering issues concerning public health. At the same time, these entrepreneurs have limitations to expand their business, due to informal format,business knowledge, physical limitations, legal and sanitary questions.

Our objective, at Coozih, is to professionalize these entrepreneurs, giving them opportunity to improve and expand their business, and at the same time, generate growth in the whole community.

Coozih offers a professional kitchen structure, with all legal and sanitary licences, to operate and produce food products. It can help food entrepreneurs, with domestic production, food trucks, local food producers, foodtechs, to develop/accelerate/expand their businesses.

Alongside, we work as a coworking space, connecting local businesses, through membership, workshops and regular social events.

As a mid-range plan, we want to have a solid community group, focusing on the consumption of products from local producers, using technology to track production volume, to anticipate demand.

My main target population are unemployed people who consider work in the food segment and workers currently in the food segment, acting informally.

I have conducted a short research with this population, talking mainly with informal entrepreneurs, many of which entered the business due to unemployment related issues.

Based on theses conversations, I built my business model. So far, it is based on the availability of adequate equipment, physical space, legal and sanitary licenses.

The next step is to open the shared kitchen structure, and based on this experience, continue to shape the model, until it can be expanded to new units, in other communities, in Florianopolis, as well as other cities in the State, and in the southern region, as a mid-range plan.

Unemployment has been an increasingly critical social issue in Brazil, and that includes Florianopolis, becoming rougher for the past 5 years.

Technological, economic and political variables were not favorable, and job creation has not improved in recent years. Entrepreneurship appeared to be a path to follow, and was showing improvement in unemployment rates, before the Covid-19 crisis.

Coozih's business model targets on these opportunities, giving to these professionals all the structure and access to knowledge to build and expand their businesses, facilitating in many ways, cutting the bureaucracy and focusing on generating value to the entrepreneur and the community.

Shared kitchen is a business model already common in other countries.

As for Brazil, there are only 2, searchable online, with similar model, but less focused on community engagement, connections with local producers, which is one of the core values for Coozih. They are both located in Sao Paulo. And there is no similar business, traceable online, in the southern part of Brazil.

We also focused our early stage researches with unemployed people, having their needs and expectations as base to build our prototype kitchen.

While food production is relevant for our business, and we consider it in our values, the positive social impact that these types of business can bring to the community is what drives our actions.

We plan to apply technology in our business to optimize production and logistics related processes. Through this, reduce gas emission, waste generation, natural resource usage.

The initial prototype was to be built on containers, with solar panels and rain water usage system. Due to cost related issues, was not applied in the testing prototype currently being built.

The kitchen will be equipped with appliances that are certificated in energy consumption and gas emission indicators.

The shared usage system is also a concept that focuses on reducing consumption and optimize the usage of existing structures.

I expect that the availability of this type of structure will create a new way for people to look at work, not only as formal employment, as employees, but rather, other forms of contribution for the community, their families and themselves.

By cutting down on bureaucracy, and offering complete structure for food entrepreneurs to work and focus their energy on the core of the business, which is to produce different kinds of food, encourage more people to engage in new ways to contribute to the economy and generation of value to their community.

Within the next year, we plan to open our first kitchen, which is located in Florianopolis, and test the format, to improve the business model.

In five years, our plan is to expand, in container built structures, throughout the 3 states in the southern region of Brazil.

The main barrier are financial related, as some professional kitchen equipment have considerable high cost. Our first shared kitchen structure will be able to attend two users simultaneously. Some of the equipment that could allow members to scale up production, maintaining quality and nutritional value, such as ultra freezer and combined ovens, have elevated costs. Also, building structure, such as solar panels, container building, rain water caption system, elevates considerably the initial costs.

At this moment, to be able to evaluate the viability of the business model, how it will attend the users needs and expectations, the elements that can improve the overall quality of the structure, but are high priced, will not be offered, unless it is made clear by the target audience that they are crucial for the business to be exist.

The plan is to be able to generate revenue from the business, and reinvest in more complete structure.

I am currently the only person working directly in Coozih.

There are two contractors, working in the structure.

Before founding Coozih, I worked for 13 years in a tobacco multinational company.

In this period, I was able to learn from different areas, from Marketing and Commercial, which was the area I was located, to HR, Legal, Corporate Affairs, Operations, Finance, which were supporting areas I had constant contact, sometimes being able to have deeper experiences, due to locations I worked, with limited resources.

I expect to be able to build a very skilled and diverse team in Coozih, once we can open our first unit.

The current traditional food business has 4 main levels, until it reaches the consumer, not to mention sub levels that exists in each of the main levels. They are: producers, industry, distribution and retail. This format impacts consumers in the food they consume. May be in cost, may be in food quality/health impact.

With a structure that builds networks among local producers and entrepreneurs, the food business can have its chain shortened. It will impact in cost, and it may impact in quality, better ingredients, less processed food. Local economy can be strengthened. 

The main source of revenue will be the membership fees that users will pay, to use the kitchen, or business office spaces.

I believe that this shared kitchen business model, focusing on bringing economic and social impact to the community, can be a solution to current unemployment related issued that exists in Brazil, and in Florianopolis.

If this assumption is true, it could bring relevant positive impact to the cities' and, in the future, to the state and countries population, improve people's self stem, their expectations for life, to improve their families quality of life.

I have really high expectations, that this business will bring a new way for people to see work, to see their role within their communities, and how will each of them be able to add value to the communities they are part of.

As it is a business that has little competition in Brazil, and none in Florianopolis, or other cities in the southern area, it as not been tested, to understand the model that will best attend the need of our population.

As for technology solutions, it is related to the business model, on how to best apply it, to optimize the processes.

I believe the solution I'm bringing can address unemployment, offering a new view and opportunities, that will create jobs that will engage people, that will be working in the area they actually passionate about. By reducing bureaucracy and creating network with different areas, this solution will be inclusive with people that have cooking technical skills, but were, up to now, discouraged to pursue a career in this area.

We will reinvest the prize to improve our facilities and, as a second step, expand our business, to new units, built on the ideal, more sustainable structures.