In response to continued rising costs for the food delivery industry from large corporate ordering apps, a group of Northern Ireland based entrepreneurs have launched a competitor that focuses on the needs of both the consumer and the business.
Eat Local, headed up by businessmen Ivan McCombe, Anthony Pereira and Sandeep Sharma, will offer restaurants, takeaways, cafes and other food to go establishments the opportunity to significantly decrease their costs for operating their delivery services.
The company, which has already invested over £250,000 to develop the app and its infrastructure has now pledged to invest a further £400,000 over the next year into the marketing of the app.
Part of Eat Local’s mission is to encourage establishments to offer consumers the same prices on the app as they would get in the shop, more commonly known in the industry as ‘menu board prices’.
Founder Ivan McCombe said it’s time for the takeaway industry to take back their profits and to stop paying exuberant fees to global organisations which haemorrhage money from the local economy.
He explained: “Since a variety of global apps entered the takeaway market, takeaways who want to offer delivery services have been at the mercy of extortionate commissions and debilitating rising costs.
“At Eat Local we want to give takeaways back their money, keep expenditure in the local economy and reduce the prices consumers are paying for delivered goods.
“What many people don’t know is that more often than not establishments are having to increase their prices per item in order to compensate for the huge amounts of money they pay each week in commissions.
“Not just that, payments to the takeaways are delayed meaning reduced cashflow for the business and less control over their operations.”
As well as offering no commission structure the Eat Local app gives food to go establishments full control over the data, meaning the business can market directly to their own customers at any time.
Sandeep Sharma explained: “When I met Ivan and Anthony to discuss their tech product I was excited about how it can completely revolutionise the food to go market here in Northern Ireland. Being in the industry myself I knew first hand how their solution could completely change how my business operates.
“Cashflow is king and Eat Local’s commitment to giving takeaways and food to go establishments back the money they are paying in huge commissions is a game changer.
“Not just that, one of the most frustrating things for takeaways and restaurants who use global food delivery apps is that they have no control over their own data. They can’t retain any information they get about their customers.
“The way Eat Local is set up means we can give control back to our customers and give them the chance to interact directly with their own consumers.
“Likewise, we will also be investing heavily in marketing the app to consumers and bringing a lot more value added services to the table.”
One of those value added services includes an integrated ordering system which allows food delivery establishments to better control how they update, manage and operate their Eat Local profile.
Anthony Pereira explained that the user journey for both the customers and consumers was a big part of the app development process for Eat Local.
He said: “When we decided to create the Eat Local app I was able to bring my experience as a takeaway owner to the table and ask ‘what do takeaways really need from an app’, that alongside consultations with the industry we have been able to put together a product that not only rivals the global food delivery apps but offers consumers a similar customer journey.
“Our app is simple and easy to use, gives food delivery businesses more control over their profile and has been created to allow us to expand the offerings and value we bring to the end consumer.”
Eat Local is currently offering food delivery companies, takeaways and food to go establishments free access to the app and system up until September 30th during which time the company will roll out a consumer campaign.
To find out more about how you can support Eat Local to help keep cashflow in the Northern Ireland economy go to eatlocaluk.co.uk