Deliveroo

Across Brighton and Hove, www.deliveroo.co.uk

MOST people have had pizza or curry delivered to their door.

But what about a portion of fish and chips? A freshly squeezed fruit juice? Or a bowl of ramen noodles?

Having established itself in the city back in December Deliveroo offers all those options to diners in Brighton and Hove, and much more.

The service has now partnered up with more than 50 restaurants, bringing food to postcodes across the city within an average delivery time of 32 minutes, for just £2.50 on top of the standard restaurant prices.

And Deliveroo works with both independent businesses, such as Chilli Pickle, in Jubilee Square, Coggins And Co in Seven Dials, Bardsley’s in Baker Street, and Lucky Beach in King’s Road Arches as well as chains including Wagamama, Zizzi, Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Carluccio’s.

Regional manager Jeremy Rawlinson joined the company last November after trying out the Deliveroo experience himself in its home base of Islington.

Since then the company has expanded massively, moving to cities across the country including Manchester, Cambridge, Reading, Bristol, Cardiff, Sheffield and Liverpool, as well as establishing its first international cities in Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin.

But Brighton was the first move the company made outside London.

“There was such an amazing selection of restaurants and so many new ones opening up,” says Rawlinson.

“Brighton is full of early adopters, and we knew it was something the city would love.

“Brighton has played a big part in our expansion – we learned a lot.”

Now the distinctive Deliveroo scooter has become a familiar sight on the city streets, and the company is constantly on the look-out for new drivers, as well as restaurants who want to join the family.

“What we are doing is providing the restaurant with an incremental sale which they never had before,” says Rawlinson.

“It means restaurant owners are getting more out of their kitchens and staff – it gives the customers what they want, and makes the restaurant more money.”

Deliveroo is about creating a proper partnership between the restaurant and the service – it’s not simply putting the restaurant on a website and leaving them to deal with the orders.

“Restaurants are not experts in deliveries,” says Rawlinson. “Some would load up a driver with five jobs, which would mean the fifth customer’s food would be cold.

“We make sure we have quality restaurants, and have control over the delivery. We provide the operational logistics, which are quick and efficient.”

Each restaurant gets a printer and a tablet to receive orders. About ten minutes before an order is ready they can book a driver to come to the restaurant, who picks up the food and takes it to its destination.

“We deliver in a zonal area,” says Rawlinson. “We have done a lot of research and testing, and realised after 12 minutes the food goes cold and quality deteriorates.

“We aim to have a delivery time of eight minutes, which means the average customer when they order gets their food in 32 minutes.

“It means we have a short delivery radius. If we were to deliver more than two-and-a-half miles out of town to The University Of Sussex for example people would order once, but they would never order again because the food would be cold.

“We want to control quality and make sure their food is delivered in the best possible way.”

It’s clearly working, as Rawlinson says the company enjoys an impressive customer return rate of 60%.

The company is looking to expand into delivering business lunches to Brighton offices – something which is already popular in London.

“There is a huge marketing spend,” adds Rawlinson. “Over the last couple of months we have pushed our restaurants through social media and advertising. For a restaurant it’s not just about orders coming through, it’s added exposure through our platform.

“We want Deliveroo to become a national business. We want people to think instead of getting a take away, they’re getting a Deliveroo. Our plans are international – and Brighton has been a big part of that.”

Deliveries between 11.45am to 11pm.

Restaurant owners can sign up to Deliveroo by emailing restaurants@deliveroo.co.uk.