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Restaurant Industry News has been hearing insight from Foodhub on how UK takeaways have been struggling with unforeseen implications following the UK’s departure from the EU on 31^st January 2021. 

Ardian Mula, CEO of Foodhub, said: “It’s incredibly important to us that we support the British high street – we’ve built our whole business model around this. But it still stands to be seen just how our industry will navigate the changes that are sure to keep coming as we continue to get used to life outside of the EU.”

The struggles takeaways are facing are primarily due to two factors – the rising cost of ingredients and delays in ports.

As a platform that operates a 0% commission model, Foodhub understands the hardships that takeaways have faced as a result of Brexit and has been speaking to Phil Adams, General Manager of Stoke based takeaway Tiger Bite.

Phil Adams said: “Since leaving the EU, we have seen price increases in flour, chips, chicken and cheese, which are four of our most heavily ordered items. The main problem was the lack of information we had prior to this, as it just made forward planning impossible.

Despite the hike in prices, Phil said that his business simply didn’t have the choice of removing these four key items from the menu, as this would have inevitably impacted sales in a negative way. This meant that Tiger Bite had no choice but to pay the increased cost in ingredients. 

And it’s not just the rising cost of food that is the problem, the delays at ports that took place over Christmas last year have also crippled the supply chain.

Phil said: “A huge amount of our food is imported, and we simply could not risk disappointing the volume of customers we serve.

Due to these delays, Phil had to delay any investment into new equipment for his business. Additionally, he made the difficult choice not to recruit any more team members in order to protect the income of his existing family of workers.

In this current climate, it is more important than ever that takeaways have full control over the management of their business, which can be difficult when relying on many of the popular aggregator sites such as Just Eat and Deliveroo. These charge commission rates of up to 35%, meaning takeaways are already facing a hefty charge before they have even considered the difficulties coming from leaving the EU. 

This is where Foodhub’s leading EPOS system comes in. Ardian Mula, said: “At Foodhub we operate a 0% commission model for customers who use our EPOS system, in contrast to our competitors who are still charging restaurants between 10-15%. We also charge 0% on customer orders, instead charging a flat monthly rate which allows our partners to operate flexibly and remain in control of their business saving on average £2,250²  a month vs using our competitor sites.

The Foodhub EPOS system gives restaurants access to numerous features such as digital billboards, pay at table and pay via QR and an advanced ordering system, all via an app that is designed to make their business run as smoothly as possible.

Mr Mula added: “Feedback from our partners has been that they have been caught in the perfect storm during the last few months. The national lockdown has unequivocally saved the livelihoods of many takeaway owners, and while we are proud to have been supporting the public during this time, the industry cannot rely on this for much longer.” 

Foodhub is encouraging independent business to take advantage of the current appetite for e-commerce and delivery orders and sign up to the site. 

For more information visit https://foodhub.co.uk/become-a-partner