NAS Servair, Jumia sign pact for food delivery services

Airline in-flight caterer NAS Servair has opened a new business line to deliver food to buyers in the city via e-commerce platform Jumia Food at Sh200 per order.

The move comes at a time when the air travel industry has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has reduced international travel due to restrictive measures placed by countries trying to keep the virus from spreading.

Speaking at the launch of the new service dubbed Bei Poa Kitchen, NAS Servair general manager Stephane Lopez said it is in response to a growing demand for ready meals delivered to offices and homes within Nairobi.

“This partnership rides on the experience derived from running a Pan African e-commerce platform(Jumia) and our catering service to 30 airlines serving Kenyan meals to consumers at an affordable and safe way,” said the NAS boss.

Jumia Food chief commercial officer Shreenal Ruparelia said the partnership will ride on the social distancing measures which have seen many people shun crowded spaces in favour of home and office deliveries of food.

“We are excited to launch Bei Poa Kitchen with our partner NAS Servair which will provide low cost online meals to consumers on a large scale. Home food delivery from restaurants is growing fast, as more consumers are choosing to order from home or the office and want to avoid crowds,” she said.

All orders, she said must be made and paid for before 6pm on the day before the delivery, in order to allow NAS Servair to prepare the meals overnight ready for deliveries by Jumia riders the next day.

Jumia Food Index report released last year revealed that Kenyans on average spend between Sh200 to Sh2,000 on meals sold on the platform.

According to the survey, Nairobi is the leading city across Africa for online food delivery, followed by Casablanca (Morocco), Lagos (Nigeria) Kampala (Uganda) and Abidjan (Ivory Coast) largely driven by Kenya’s high mobile internet penetration.