Deliveroo is a website changing the face of food delivery as we know it by partnering with high-end Australian restaurants to bring your favourite meals straight to your home or office.
When it comes to ordering in, food delivery options have always been somewhat limited.
Unless you live within close proximity of restaurants that offer a pick-up service, you’ve generally got pizza, Chinese, Thai or Indian to choose from. If you’re lucky, Vietnamese.
Frustrating, no? Especially when you’re in the mood for something tasty -- but can’t be bothered getting out of your activewear from the day’s chores.
Well, imagine a world where you can order a fancy burger from Neil Perry’s Rockpool... Or perhaps some dumplings from Billy Kwong… to be eaten in the comfort of your home -- Deliveroo, a UK-based business is planning on making that a reality.
While it doesn’t have Perry or Kwong on the books yet -- the recently launched service has already signed some impressive names among its 180 restaurants across Melbourne and Sydney -- including 38 Chairs, Uncle, Huxtaburger, Spice Room and Red Lantern.
“Deliveroo is about letting customers know that delivery can be a really good experience and it can also be from a premium restaurant,” Levi Aron, Deliveroo Country Manager Australia told The Huffington Post.
Launched in 2013 in London, Deliveroo wanted to steer away from other food delivery services like Menulog which focused on being an online marketplace for takeaway restaurants and instead, target high quality restaurants that don’t deliver.
“It’s certainly been a learning curve on both the consumer and restaurateur side of things -- often, we see a knee jerk reaction from restaurant owners saying they’re simply a premium restaurant that does not deliver,” Aron said.
But the growth of the London-based business is enough to quickly change their mind -- having quickly expanded to Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Spain -- while also raising $140 million for its Australian launch.
“We really believe that people make a decision about whether they want to dine in or dine out -- and Deliveroo is opening up a new stream of revenue for restaurants by giving them an opportunity to deliver their premium food on days when their customers may not be able to come to them,” Aron said.
With a flat delivery fee of $5 whether you are ordering for one or a party of seven -- the service is due to launch its app in the coming weeks which will allow customers to track the progress of their order in real time.
As well as premium food, Deliveroo is signing restaurants that have become somewhat of an institution in Australia.
“We’re working with popular brands like Mary’s for instance, which has a line of people waiting to get their burgers on a daily basis over the lunch time period,” Aron said.
In the New Year, Deliveroo will be expanding to Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Perth.