Deliveroo has today announced the launch of its first restaurant makeover project, which aims to support independent restaurants and the British high street. The competition invites its independent restaurant partners around the UK to enter for the chance to win one of three renovations, worth £25k each.
Deliveroo continues to support the development and growth of its 17,000 UK restaurants’ delivery businesses, increasing partners’ revenues by up to 30%. Today, the food delivery partner looks beyond delivery, launching this special project to give some of its smaller restaurants and takeaways the chance to revamp their restaurant site and improve their dine-in offering.
Deliveroo’s Restaurant Makeover project launches in light of new research*, which reveals that 88% of Brits find elements such as ambience and service just as important as the food when it comes to having a good experience in a restaurant.
Eight out of ten (80%) customers said they would spend more money in a restaurant if they enjoyed the décor and atmosphere proving the importance of creating a desirable setting is more important than ever. But restaurant renovation projects can be costly and difficult to complete around opening hours, especially for small, family-run businesses, so this opportunity aims to take the stress out such a big project.
Restaurant and takeaway owners can head to restaurants.deliveroo.com/perks/restaurantmakeovers where they can apply for a chance to win the investment. The announcement is the latest move from Deliveroo showing its long term commitment to supporting the UK’s restaurant and takeaway industry.
After the shortlist of finalists is selected, the list will be shared with the British public in June on Deliveroo’s social media to vote for their favourite. The selected winners will receive a restaurant makeover worth £25,000, supported by Deliveroo’s Restaurant Partnerships team to help with marketing, in-house and delivery operations.
Prof Charles Spence of the University of Oxford said, “The importance of creating the ideal multisensory dining environment can not be understated.
'Whilst the food is extremely important, the eye appeal of the venue, the lighting/sounds and even how close we are to the nearest table affects our food choices and can even impact or enhance the taste of the food.
'You obviously can’t eat the atmosphere but it really is one of the most important parts of the total dining experience.”
Susana Voces, Deliveroo’s VP of Restaurants, said, “These results show that not only do we eat with our eyes but in fact, all our senses need to be treated as well as our taste buds. We work very closely with our restaurant partners and we understand it can be costly trying to remain as profitable as possible.
'This Restaurant Makeovers competition is the latest move from our Restaurant Partnerships team who are focussed on helping Deliveroo’s 80,000 global restaurant partners improve margins through reduced in house operating costs, as well as optimising operations and customer experience.”
Angelo Ambrosio at Santa Maria Pizza said, “Becoming a Deliveroo partner has helped us increase our revenue and whilst we’re always looking at ways to re-invest our earnings to improve the quality of our food and our dine-in experience it can sometimes feel like it's never enough.
'Deliveroo’s Restaurant Makeover initiative would be super helpful for an independent, growing business like ours. I’ve never heard of a food delivery service offering this level of support to their restaurant partners - especially to enhance the dine-in experience, it's great!”
Top 10 most important elements for a restaurant to get right:
Food & Drink
Space between tables
Comfortable seats
Temperature
Ambience
Lighting
Decor
Music
Cutlery
Concept
Additional stats:
81% of Brits have chosen to go into a restaurant because of how appealing it looked from the outside
71% of Brits confirmed they are more likely to share their restaurant experience on social media if they like the surroundings
Conversely, the biggest foodies reside in Stoke on Trent where you’re twice as likely (19%) to believe nothing is more important than the food when it comes to having a good experience in a restaurant - compared against the national average of just over one in ten (12%)
Nearly half (45%) of all consumers would avoid returning to a restaurant if they were sat too close to another diner, according to a Deliveroo report into dining habits. As a nation we spend £62.9bn a year eating-in*, meaning that some UK restaurants will be missing out on an eye watering slice of a £28.3bn pie.
Lighting is a hugely contentious issue; 55% would avoid trying a restaurant if they didn’t like the set-up and there’s a glaring difference in what we see as a problem. 42% of consumers find bright lights most annoying, where as 38% found dim dining the biggest turn off - Illuminating findings whichever way you look at it.