01
Instructions
How the file works, what the colours mean, and the licence rule to settle before you sign for a kitchen. One sheet, read it once.
Cloud Kitchen Equipment Planner: Sized From Brands and Orders
A cloud kitchen is a packing and dispatch business with a stove in it. The stove does not change when you add a brand; everything on the delivery side does. Tell this file your brands, your platforms and your busiest day, and it works out the cooking stations, the packing stations, the tablets, the containers and the dispatch shelves, then totals your own supplier quotes. Updated September 2026.
- 60 items in nine groups, sized from your brands and orders rather than copied off a list
- The delivery side nobody costs: packing bench, sealing, packaging, dispatch shelves and the tablet wall
- Three quote columns per line, and the licence rule that decides which kitchen you can cook in
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Petpooja presents
Cloud Kitchen Equipment Planner
For Delivery Kitchens in India
60
Items · nine groups
Excel · 5 sheets
What's Inside
Five sheets, and the second one sizes both sides
02
Cloud Kitchen Profile
Brands you run from the kitchen, delivery platforms you list on, orders on your busiest day, the share of that day in your busiest hour, items an order, what you cook and whether you take direct orders. Plus six assumptions, all visible and all editable.
03
Equipment List
All 60 items across the cooking line, prep, cold storage, the packing bench, packaging stock, holding and dispatch, order screens, cleaning and safety. Each line carries the spec to insist on, a calculated quantity, three quote columns and a day-one or later flag, with six blank rows for anything the list does not carry.
04
Before You Buy
Whose licence the kitchen is on and the two things that change the answer, the packaging you may not buy at all, what this file leaves to our other two cloud kitchen pieces, twelve questions to put to a supplier in writing before you pay, and the order things have to arrive in.
05
Budget Summary
Totals by group, opening day against later, what share the delivery side takes against the cooking side, a count of every line you have given a quantity but not yet priced, and what the whole kit costs per order of peak capacity.
+
And it prints as your enquiry
Not a sixth sheet: print the Equipment List and it doubles as the enquiry you send a supplier, with item, specification and quantity set out and three columns waiting for their price.
Watch six tablets on one screen
Petpooja POS integrates Zomato and Swiggy orders directly, deducts stock item by item as you bill, sends low-stock alerts, and gives you day-end inventory reports, part of 80+ business reports covering sales, staff actions and inventory consumption.
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Why This Matters
The stove is the easy half. The other half is the bag
Our own cloud kitchen equipment guide lists what you need, and it lists it well. Read it end to end, though, and every item on it is a cooking item: range, fryer, exhaust, fridge, sinks, shelves, plus a POS and WiFi. It is a restaurant kitchen list with the dining room deleted.
That is the half nobody gets wrong. The half that decides whether a delivery kitchen works is what happens after the food is cooked: the bench it is checked and bagged on, the seal that goes on it, the shelf it waits on, and the screens the order arrived through. None of that appears on a kitchen equipment list, because a restaurant does not need any of it.
And it is the half that multiplies. Add a brand to a restaurant and you have added a section to a menu. Add a brand to a cloud kitchen and you have added packaging, labels, prepped items that cannot be shared, and a tablet for every platform that brand lists on. The range stays exactly where it was.
Three brands on two platforms is six tablets. Six chargers, six sockets behind them and six screens that somebody has to be watching when the rush lands. Nobody tells you that number, and it is the one that decides whether you need another pair of hands at seven o'clock or just a POS that consolidates the platforms into one screen.
This file starts from your brands, your platforms and the orders on your busiest day. It works out the cooking stations, the packing stations, the tablets, the containers you have to buy before you open and the shelves the bagged orders wait on. Every figure moves when you change the profile, because they are all worked out from it.
On prices, this file prints none, deliberately. Our own restaurant startup cost estimator already publishes a cloud kitchen band and tells you to replace it with your own quotes. It hands you that instruction and no list to quote against. This is that list: three quote columns a line, lowest taken, totalled by group. For the wider picture, how to start a profitable cloud kitchen covers the business around it.
One thing a cloud kitchen equipment list never mentions: the FSSAI licence belongs to the kitchen, not to your brands. Five brands out of one kitchen is one licence, not five. The file carries that, and the two conditions that change the answer.
Running a different format? The same planner, sized for what that format actually buys: bar equipment planner, cafe equipment planner and the bakery equipment planner.
Sample Preview
What the file works out for 3 brands, 2 platforms, 200 orders
Here's a preview of what you'll get inside:
You enter: 3 brands, 2 delivery platforms,
200 orders on your busiest day, a fifth of them in the busiest hour, 2.5 items an order,
a mixed menu, and yes to direct orders
The peak: 40 orders in the busiest hour.
Everything below is sized on that, never on the daily total
The stations: 3 cooking stations and 2
packing stations, so the exhaust above the line is sized on three, not on the room
The tablet wall: 6 tablets, 6 mounts and 6
sockets. Direct orders do not add a seventh
The packaging: 600 containers a day, so 4,620
in opening stock at a week's cover plus the buffer
Then the budget: what has to be paid for
before you can take an order, what can follow, and what share of the spend the delivery
side takes against the cooking side
... plus the spec to insist on for every line, the licence rule in
full, the packaging you may not buy at all, and twelve questions to put to a supplier in
writing. Add a fourth brand and a third platform and the same file asks for 12 tablets.
Every figure moves when you change the profile.
Key Numbers
Three things worth knowing before you order
One licence
An FSSAI licence is based on the premises, and all the food business activities carried on at that premises can be applied for in a single licence. Five brands out of one kitchen is not five licences. A second kitchen is a second licence.
Source: FSSAI FAQs on Licence and Registration, Q1 and Q77The box, not the spoon
Food containers and boxes are not on the prohibited single-use plastics list. Plain plastic cutlery, straws, stirrers, cups, glasses, plates and trays are, and a cloud kitchen puts exactly those in the bag. Compostable versions are carved out by the central rules, if the maker holds a CPCB certificate and your state has not gone further.
Source: Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, prohibition from 1 July 2022Brands x platforms
Not brands, and not platforms. The two multiplied is the number of tablets on the wall, chargers behind them and screens somebody has to watch through the rush. It is the figure no equipment list carries.
Source: the sizing method built into the workbook
Common Mistakes
7 buying mistakes that show up in the first month
01
Costing the kitchen and forgetting the bag
Range, fryer, fridge, exhaust. Every list covers those, and every budget carries them. The packing bench, the sealer, the labels, the containers and the dispatch shelf are the half that makes a delivery kitchen work, and they arrive as a surprise line in month one.
02
Sizing the exhaust on the room rather than the line
An exhaust is sized on the cooking line beneath it. Get it wrong and it is the thing your neighbours complain about first, the thing a landlord notices, and the one item you cannot upgrade cheaply once the ducting is in.
03
One packing station for three brands
Packing looks like a table, so it gets one. Then three brands' worth of orders land in the same twenty minutes, and food that was cooked correctly sits and goes cold while it waits to be bagged. Packing is a station, and it is sized on the peak hour.
04
Forgetting the sockets behind the tablet wall
Six tablets need six chargers and six sockets, and the electrical work is done before the tablets arrive. This is the line everybody forgets until the wall is already up and an extension lead is running across a wet kitchen.
05
Under-ordering packaging because it is cheap
Packaging is the lowest-value thing on the list and the only one that stops service outright when it runs out. You cannot serve a bagged order without a bag. Work out the containers a day, decide how many days you want to hold, and buy that.
06
Buying plastic cutlery to go in the bag
The container is fine. A plain plastic spoon in it is not. Plastic cutlery, straws and stirrers are prohibited single-use items, and the prohibition covers stocking and use, not just sale, so a case of them in the store room is within scope. Compostable ones are carved out of that prohibition, but only the maker's CPCB certificate proves the claim, and states can go further than the centre. Specify the material on the purchase order, ask for the certificate, and check your own state's notification.
07
Assuming the licence follows the brand
It follows the kitchen. Five brands from one premises is one licence, so budgeting for five wastes money. The expensive version of this mistake is the other way round: opening a second kitchen and cooking on the first one's licence. Our cloud kitchen operations SOP covers the running side once you are trading, and food cost is where the margin goes after that.
Comparison
A kitchen equipment list vs this planner
| Aspect | A good equipment list | With this planner |
|---|---|---|
| What to buy | Covered, usually well | Covered, in nine groups across cooking and delivery |
| What it costs | Often nothing at all | Your own three quotes a line, lowest taken automatically |
| How many cooking stations | Not answered | From peak-hour orders against what one station clears |
| The packing bench | Not mentioned | A station, sized on the same peak hour |
| Aggregator tablets | Not mentioned | Brands multiplied by platforms, with mounts and sockets |
| Packaging | Not quantified | Containers a day, and the opening stock that needs |
| Whose licence | Not mentioned | Premises-based, with the two conditions that change it |
| Talking to suppliers | You write the enquiry yourself | The sheet prints as the enquiry, with the spec attached |
Swipe the table sideways to see the full comparison.
Size both sides before you call a supplier
Download the free planner, enter your brands and your orders, and let it work the rest out.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How many aggregator tablets does a cloud kitchen need?
One for every brand on every platform. Three brands listed on two platforms is six tablets, because each brand has its own storefront on each aggregator and each storefront has its own order stream. Direct orders through your own site or WhatsApp do not add a tablet. What does change the number is a POS that pulls the platforms into a single screen, which is the difference between six devices to watch and one. Budget the mounts and the sockets at the same time: the electrical work is done before the tablets arrive.
Do I need a separate FSSAI licence for each brand I run?
Generally no, not if one operator runs them all from one kitchen. FSSAI licensing is premises-based. The licensing FAQ asks whether different licences are needed for different kinds of food business activity at the same premise, and answers that the licence is based on the premise and all activities at that premise can be applied for in a single licence. Declare the brand names you trade under when you apply, and ask your licensing authority how they want them recorded, because the FAQ does not address that part. Two things change the answer: a second premises needs its own licence, and brands run by genuinely separate legal entities are separate food business operators. This is general guidance and not legal advice; your licensing authority is the one to confirm what applies to your premises.
What does it cost to set up a cloud kitchen in India?
Our restaurant startup cost estimator carries a band for a cloud kitchen and tells you, correctly, to replace it with your own quotes. This planner is the list to get those quotes against. It deliberately prints no price of its own, because one number published in two places is one number that will eventually disagree with itself. What it does instead is the part a published range cannot: how many of each item your brands and orders actually need, and what your own three suppliers charge for exactly that list.
Can I buy plastic containers for delivery?
Containers and boxes are not on the prohibited single-use plastics list. Plain plastic cutlery, straws, stirrers, cups, glasses, plates and trays are, prohibited since 1 July 2022, and plastic carry bags below one hundred and twenty microns since 31 December 2022. So the box is fine and a plain plastic spoon in it is not. There is one carve-out that matters to a delivery kitchen: sub-rule (3) of that notification says the prohibition does not apply to commodities made of compostable plastic, and the 2024 amendment requires the maker of a compostable commodity to hold a certificate from the Central Pollution Control Board before selling it, so ask for the certificate rather than taking the word compostable off a label. States can and do go further than the centre on plastics, so check your own state’s notification before a large order. This is general guidance and not legal advice. The prohibition covers stocking and use, not only sale, so holding a case in the store room is within scope. Specify a permitted material on the purchase order, check the micron rating on the invoice rather than the bag, and confirm the current list with your state pollution control board before a large order, because it is amended from time to time. This is general guidance and not legal advice.
How is this different from the Cloud Kitchen Operations SOP?
They answer different questions and you will want both, in order. This planner sizes what you buy once, before you open: stations, tablets, packaging, shelves and the budget for all of it. The cloud kitchen operations SOP covers how to run it afterwards: opening setup, multi-brand stations, order workflow, holding temperatures and closing. And our cloud kitchen profitability guide answers whether the model earns once it is running. Buy, run, earn. Nothing in this file repeats either of the other two.
How many packing stations do I need?
From your peak hour, not your day. Take the orders on your busiest day, the share of them that lands in the busiest hour, and divide by what one packer clears in an hour. Two hundred orders with a fifth in the peak hour is forty orders, which at twenty an hour is two packing stations. The planner defaults the packing rate to twenty and lets you change it, because a menu that splits gravy from rice bags slower than one that does not. Under-building this is the mistake that makes correctly cooked food arrive cold.
About Petpooja
Petpooja is India's leading SME business software suite, trusted by 1,50,000+ businesses across restaurants, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and more. From billing and payroll to task management and procurement, Petpooja helps Indian businesses run better, every day.
Know what went out of the door
Petpooja POS deducts stock item by item as you bill, sends low-stock alerts and produces day-end inventory reports, so the gap between what you cooked and what you sold shows up the same week rather than at the month's count.
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