Hot off the plate

Too busy to eat a proper meal? Ordering food doesn’t have to be boring, bland or unhealthy. There are plenty of options – you just need the right information platform for putting in an order By Matthew Czaja T here’s nothing more idyllic than picking up vegetables and fresh cuts of meat at a farmer’s market, checking out a good recipe and fixing a splendid meal at home. The problem is that very few people have time for such an escapade these days. On the other hand, the amount of restaurant delivery options (especially in Warsaw) are growing. Kitchens have been delivering an ever-increasing range of tastes and quality (Asian, Mediterranean or Polish cuisine is available for delivery). Convenience is tops among younger consumers. The “Polska na talerzu 2014” Report (English: Poland on the Plate) shows that 64 percent of people aged 18-24 use the services of eateries, of which many offer delivery options. Homo Homini research institute claim that 64 percent of Poles ordered meals to home or office locations at least once over the past year. There are many players on the food delivery portal market in Poland including: Pizzaportal.pl, Pyszne.pl, Foodpanda.pl or Roomservice.pl (Warsaw only), to name a few. There is currently considerable foreign investment flowing into this market niche in Poland according to Gazeta Wyborcza. Mobility [caption id="attachment_85691" align="alignleft" width="300"] Lech Kaniuk, Partner at Delivery Hero Holding and Managing Director of Pizzaportal.pl[/caption] With the increased use of smartphones, restaurants have come across a new medium for reaching customers. According to dlahandlu.pl, an industry portal, three out of five Poles connected to the internet via smartphones at the beginning of 2014 and one out of every four restaurant clients used mobile apps. An average order in 2014 amounted to PLN 43. Piotr Czajkowski of Wrocław-based start-up Pyszne.pl is keen on reaching out to smartphone users. “We are seeing a huge increase in orders coming from our mobile application (over 30 percent month-on-month). This is why development of our mobile application is our top priority for 2015.” Pyszne.pl offers 3,000 restaurants in its online network and has 200 new locales coming on board every month. The company has experienced 100 percent growth in the last year. “Most clients can point to about five restaurants in the area, but when they try our portal, they can see that there are literally tens of options available. This encourages them to try out something new,” Czajkowski explained. According to Lech Kaniuk, the co-founder of the OnlinePizza Group, including the Polish branch of Pizzaportal.pl, there is a lot of room to grow in the mobile application order niche. In South Korea, 95 percent of food orders are placed via mobile apps, while 40 percent of the orders in Western Europe are made this way. Poles seem to still be more comfortable with the traditional telephone order. An international affair Little might you know that the delivery portal trend is an international, or even global, affair. Kaniuk’s career with Pizzaportal.pl started thanks to OnlinePizza Norden AB of Sweden. After an acquisition by Delivery Hero, the company became part of the world’s largest online food ordering network. “We use our Holding as a facilitator for best practice and a channel to share things globally. Headquarters does part of our administrative tasks, letting us focus on the local business,” commented Kaniuk. In the case of Pyszne.pl, the storyline is homegrown. Getting their start in Wrocław, which has its share of start-up incubators, the company secured EU funds. Competition in this sector has been big and soon after, they began the search for a strategic investor and found out that a foreign partner was the best solution. Lieferando of Berlin entered the picture in 2012. Two years later, an even bigger company, Takeaway.com took over the group, hence becoming the leader in Europe, with activities in 11 countries. Pyszne.pl is part of a single system in Europe. Innovative solutions There are plenty of interesting tools and options on the delivery market that spice up user experience. For [caption id="attachment_85692" align="alignright" width="300"] Piotr Czajkowski - Country Manager Poland at Pyszne.pl[/caption] example, Pyszne.pl has created a “Polish Culinary Preference Map” (see previous page). It shows that pizza is still tops, but Polish cuisine is the dinnertime favorite. “At the beginning, the majority of our customers seemed to use the same two or three restaurants, but we have noticed that after about five months they start experimenting with new restaurants,” said Czajkowski. Needless to say, the wide-reach and diversity of restaurant options certainly helps clients experiment with their tastes, especially in larger cities. The company’s income comes from a commission on orders – there are no adverts on its pages. On the other hand, plain delivery sometimes won’t do for company that needs to stay on top of the market – innovation can lead to new market niches and increased sales. In the case of Pizzaportal, smart algorithms rank better restaurants higher. “Better” is defined by many parameters and opinions are only a small part of the sorting algorithm, according to Kaniuk. Furthermore, the company wants to build its own delivery fleet to optimize and improve deliveries. A pilot in Poland is currently delivering food from McDonald’s in Warsaw. Like their peers in the sector, Pizzaportal earns 98 percent of its revenue from commissions on orders transmitted online.