The Corona crisis brought Eat.ch boss Dominic Millioud record orders. After the merger with the Dutch Takeaway.com, the former delivery start-up is now one of the largest in the world. Customers also benefit.
Posted at 6:54 am today—
–Eat.ch is now part of the Dutch Takeaway.com. In Switzerland, however, customers continue to order on Eat.ch.
Eat.ch
Those who order their lunch on Eat.ch this Tuesday will see orange. The logo, which reminds of a rainbow in its colors, has disappeared. The hungry customers now see an orange house with a knife and fork in it. Eat.ch is now officially in Dutch hands.
And customers who are particularly knowledgeable in the world of Swiss delivery services: Takeaway.com no longer exists. Both brands are now running in Switzerland under Eat.ch. The delivery service is now part of the Dutch Takeaway.com.
The name remains
«Eat.ch is the one Marke under which we were founded and on which we have relied for the past 12 years. We want this local C.maintain ouleur»Says Dominic Millioud, head of Eat.ch. It be not the right decision to change brands. But the delivery service is no longer Swiss. In 2015, the British listed company Just Eat took over the Swiss start-up founded in 2007.
And since April 15, the takeover by Takeaway.com has been sealed. Both companies have merged in a share swap. The former delivery start-up Eat.ch is now in the league of the largest delivery services in the world: the new delivery giant has 155,000 restaurants worldwide.
Takeaway.com alone brought nearly 160 million orders to 19.5 million customers last year. And Eat.ch mother Just Eat processed over 65 million deliveries in the first quarter of this year alone. The customer benefits from the merger of the two platforms in Switzerland: there are now more restaurants to choose from.
«Now is the wrong time to save. We still have enough room to grow. »
Little changes for Eat.ch in Switzerland: the lease expires at the Zurich headquarters at the end of the year, but the location is to remain in Switzerland. Millioud will continue to run the business in Switzerland, no layoffs are planned.
«Now is the wrong time to save. We still have enough room to grow, ”says Millioud. Denn der Overall market for food delivery services in Switzerland is growing rapidly: in 2018 total sales were CHF 1.2 billion and have risen to CHF 1.4 billion to date. Only a third of the orders go online. «We continue to invest, ihe Marctic stands still at the beginning“, he says.
Overrun with requests
How quickly and unexpectedly growth can be created was already evident in the first few days after the corona-related lockdown of the restaurants. «We became mit Aquestions overrun»Says the 41-year-old Millioud. In the beginning, so many requests from restaurants came in that not all of them could be processed. Hundreds of new restaurants have been launched on the platform since the crisis began.
–«We became mit Aquestions overrun»Says Eat.ch boss Dominic Millioud. From the start of the lockdown on March 16, orders at Eat.ch doubled and tripled in various regions of Switzerland.
Photo: Dominique Meienberg
It was only in January that Eat.ch broke the 500,000 order mark. Corona has given growth a tremendous boost in recent months. But before the orders really went through the roof, the delivery platform recorded a small dent in mid-March: “There was great uncertainty among customers. Instead of ordering food, toilet paper was bought, »says Millioud.
However, from the start of the lockdown on March 16, orders in different regions of Switzerland doubled and tripled. The strongest day in Switzerland was May 1st. Across Switzerland, orders rose 140 percent at 7 a.m. and 160 percent at 8 a.m.
Orders have now leveled off at a high level. The pizza is still number one. But other dishes, such as momos, Tibetan dumplings, were also ordered very often. The Swiss ordered cheeseburgers (+130 percent) and tacos (+110 percent) more often than average. Mousse au chocolat and tiramisu were also very popular.
Wine and beer orders rose
But not only food was ordered more often. The Swiss also had beer and wine delivered to their homes. During the lockdown, twice as much beer was ordered as before and 70 percent more wine – primarily red. The fact that the restaurants have been open again since May 11th would not detract from the willingness of customers to order, says Millioud.
The transformation of the website went as fast as the orders at Eat.ch rose. Just on the windows of the almost 3000 Swiss partner noestaurants still shimmers with the old, rainbow-colored logo that could not be replaced so quickly. So Holland has not yet moved into Switzerland.
Posted at 6:54 am today-
