Food deliveries
doubled in one year

Driven by mobile applications

Demand for food deliveries increased dramatically this year, according to the Syndicate of Owners of Restaurants, Cafes, Nightclubs and Pastries.

“The spike in food deliveries is partly driven by an increase in the number of food delivery mobile applications,” said Tony Ramy, Chairman of the syndicate.

Additional factors are driving the increase in deliveries. Ordering food to home is, for many people, less expensive. “Alcohol is a major component of a restaurant’s bill,” said Ramy. Additionally, restaurants are offering more discounts for delivery.

Approximately 20,000 food delivery orders are processed every day, with an average check of $15 per order, according to the syndicate’s statistics.

Around 40 percent of delivery orders are submitted through mobile applications, according to the syndicate. Zomato is used for the lion’s share of the orders (5,000), followed by Onlivery (1,500), and Toters (1,000). Toters has its own delivery network, and drivers to bring food from restaurants to customers.

“The numbers we reached this week are double the numbers we registered in the same period last year,” said Bechara Haddad, Country Manager at Zomato. “We are registering around 15 percent growth month-on-month,” he said.

Around 7,700 restaurants from Batroun to Saida use Zomato to take orders, of which 1,100 restaurants have their own delivery applications.

The potential of the delivery space has prompted Zomato to act. The company is in the process of building a delivery network and is hiring 40 drivers, which will roll out on the streets in 2019.

But many restaurants continue to take orders through their own mobile applications and call centers. They too said delivery business is booming, and some plan to set up their own call centers to manage orders.

“Food deliveries have increased 20 percent year-to-year,” said Rony Abou Saab, Managing Partner of Sandwich W Noss.

According to Joseph Saade, Chairman of Malak Al Tawouk, half of their orders are for delivery. “We are establishing our own call center to meet the increasing demand,” he said.