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The promise of a new food ordering app called Croydon Eats crossed our radar in December and we've been eagerly awaiting its arrival ever since.

We caught up with business owners Andy and Paul to find out more.

What is Croydon Eats?
We are a new service connecting Croydon takeaways and restaurants with Croydon diners via an app and web site.

How are you different from say Deliveroo or Just Eat?
We are cheaper and local-er. We pay tax in the UK, we are owned by Croydon businessmen who live in Croydon, we are committed to helping Croydon businesses to keep more of their hard-won takings while promoting them against the big international fast food brands. We charge the outlet less, so they can pass on some of those savings to their customers.

What type of food and drink will you be serving up?
We currently have on board pizza outlets (premium ones as well as the local favourites), kebab shops, fish and chip shops, dessert specialists, Chinese restaurants, burger and grill takeaways, a range of curry shops, pubs serving traditional lunches and will shortly have vape shops, local independent supermarkets, a confectionary company, beer and wine specialists and a sushi seller.

You have it all! Can you name some of the local eateries you will have on board at launch?
Royal Garden Chinese restaurant, Croydon Kebab Centre, Fireaway Pizza, Crown and Pepper pub and Matthew’s Yard give a flavour of our better-known eateries who have signed up with another 30 initially on-board. We are adding about 5 new takeaways and restaurants per week ranging from vegan, high class burgers, lip-smacking kebabs to a wide range of pizzas. We announce the new ones on our socials so keep in touch there!

Wow, some great local eateries there! What is the benefit to a local restaurant by joining your platform?
Our rates to them per order can be up to half what some are paying the international branded apps. Our overheads are much lower and we are less greedy. We are local marketers who will focus on bringing them good local clients by giving a personal touch but backed up by a tried and tested bespoke technology. We will advise our clients on what appeals best to our app users plus ensure they have on-call technical support.

Who are the brains behind Croydon Eats and what’s your background?
Paul Sweeney and Andy Szebeni own the business. Paul swapped a successful career in the City to start a firm helping businesses in South London save money on a wide range of services and he has an extensive portfolio of foodservice clients. Andy has run a number of businesses over 25 years in Croydon in sectors including telecoms, training and marketing and is highly skilled in eating takeaway meals.

What got you into the food delivery business?
We are both very experienced in sales and marketing at a local level and wanted to disrupt the cosy tri-opoly among the faceless international brands who were levying high charges to both local businesses and diners. When the first lockdown struck, we saw how restaurants in particular were hit hard and takeaways were still able to operate and we thought we could help them compete better against the big brands. We found a partner in the UK with a UK call centre and a 3 year track record of applying their takeaway management technology, mainly in the Midlands and North of England.

When do you lunch... sorry launch?
Our app goes live on March 3.

Will there be any special events or offers to mark the big day?
We will be funding out of our own pockets an extra 10% off food for the first month. Most outlets are offering discounts on their regular delivery prices in addition to that. We will be running more competitions and encouraging our outlets to make special offers which they can fund from their savings compared to the big 3 app brands.

Croydon Eats Out is a group of food-lovers who organise events at various local restaurants.  Are you related?
Croydon Eats Out is one of our big supporters on social media and they have a fantastic community of local foodie experts. But no, no relation!

Thanks for talking to us. We look forward to seeing the app go live in March and can't wait to order something delicious from your partner restaurants.

Good luck!

Posted by Tim on Thursday 11 February 2021