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In the first half of 2020, Deliveroo saw 600 new Irish restaurants sign up to its delivery platform, including Kimchi Hophouse, Mad Egg and Wigwam.
The restaurant industry has had to make some big changes as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, with many eateries implementing new technology or offering new delivery services to stay afloat when doors were closed to the public.
Just this week, Uber reported that its delivery service, Uber Eats, brought in more money than its core ride-hailing business in the last quarter as consumers swapped going out for staying in. Now, Deliveroo has said that it saw a 50pc jump in the number of restaurants on its platform in Ireland during the first half of the year.
The food-delivery company said that more than 600 new restaurants joined the platform since January 2020, bringing the total number of restaurant partners in Ireland to 1,800. In terms of new sign-ups, 64pc were in Dublin, 11pc were in Cork, 6pc were in Galway and 4pc were in Limerick. The remaining 15pc were based in Belfast.
Irish restaurants that joined Deliveroo during the pandemic include fried chicken business Mad Egg, Dublin Korean restaurant Kimchi Hophouse, dim sum specialist Lucky Tortoise, Offbeat Donuts, and Abbey St bar and restaurant Wigwam.
Increased supports
Deliveroo said that since the onset of Covid-19, it has helped restaurants transition from dine-in to delivery, providing guidance on how restaurants can run delivery safely. This covered topics such as minimising contact, how to package food and hygiene best practice.
In order to manage the increased demand during this period, Deliveroo said that it reassigned teams of people across the business to support onboarding and help restaurants that have no previous experience with deliveries.
The company also introduced new online marketing tools for restaurants to let customers know they are operating delivery services, while dropping onboarding fees for new restaurants and making updates to the app that allow for contact-free delivery.
The company’s CEO, Will Shu, commented: “We are here to deliver for restaurants that want to carry on offering amazing food to families at home during this difficult time. We are working with restaurants to optimise their operations for delivery, and we are doing everything we can to make sure people still have access to the food they want and need.”
