Three Northern Ireland entrepreneurs are investing £400,000 in a food ordering app which promises to reduce fees for participating businesses.
Eat Local is a joint venture by Ivan McCombe, Anthony Pereira and Sandeep Sharma and is looking to disrupt the traditional food delivery model which is dominated by global giants Deliveroo, Just Eat and other brands.
Its app offers restaurants, takeaways and cafes a zero commission structure which it says will prevent the need for menu prices for online delivery to be inflated to account for additional charges.
READ MORE: {}
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.
“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,” founder Ivan McCombe said. “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.”
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 said the app is a game changer.
Most Read
“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.”
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.