Menulog reveals Toowoomba’s demand for deliveries continues to grow

Menulog says Toowoomba’s appetite for door-to-door food deliveries has grown by 93 per cent since Covid-19 first struck in March 2020.

BIG APPETITE: Since March 2020, there has been a 93 per cent increase in restaurant partners on Menulog in Toowoomba, with a total of 154 now live on the platform with an increase in Menulog restaurant partners and orders creating more flexible work opportunities for couriers, with a 250 per cent increase in Toowoomba couriers engaged by the food delivering platform in the past 12 months. Picture: Menulog

If it wasn’t for the Australian online food ordering company, Menulog, Toowoomba residents might have had to say “vaarwel” to De Dutch Cafe’s mouth watering pancakes and waffles.

Owner Amber Meade said signing up for the door-to-door delivery service made a difference to the businesses daily takings during a particularly uncertain period.

Father and daughter team Ron Ruijter and Amber Meade opened a new Dutch inspired eatery called De Dutch Cafe in Newtown last June. Photographer: Matthew Newton

“We decided to sign up for a food delivery service six months ago after opening De Dutch Cafe in May 2020,” she said.

“We originally looked into Uber Eats, but the set-up fee was between $800 to $900 whereas Menulog had no upfront set-up fees or charges and they even provided us with the little smart pad and docket system which made the delivery process easy.”

Since March 2020 there has been a 93 per cent increase in restaurant partners on Menulog in Toowoomba, with a total of 154 now live on the platform.

There has also been a 250 per cent increase in couriers engaged by the food delivering platform in Toowoomba over the past 12 months.

“We’ve seen such a positive response in Toowoomba and we’re committed to continue growing order demand for restaurants, creating work opportunities and providing greater choice for customers,” Menulog managing director Morten Birk said.

“We’ve made a significant investment in Toowoomba and regional areas across Australia and we’re focused on delivering greater value to our customers. We want to empower every food moment for Aussies, providing new opportunities for our restaurant partners, and supporting them to grow their businesses.”

The five most popular cuisines on Menulog in Toowoomba are burgers, chicken, Japanese, sandwiches and Mexican, while the large kebab at Sunshine Kebabs is one of Toowoomba’s most popular value item for under $15.“Before Menulog we were trying to juggle the deliveries ourselves,” Ms Meade said.

“But that just got too difficult to manage and with delivery fees only costing us between $1.99 and $4.99 we only have to put our delivery costs up a little bit to cover ourselves so it’s a win, win in our books.”

Ms Meade said while the pancakes and big breakfasts were by far their most popular order with an average of 15 to 20 deliveries each week, some customers mentioned it was difficult to find the business’ windmill logo on the app.

“A lot of the bigger franchises do pay more to be at the top of the app so sometimes we can get a little lost with all the different options on offer,” she said.

“But the amount it would cost us to advertise within the app would mean we wouldn’t be making anything from having the delivery option in the first place and at the end of the day it provides us with an additional 20 sales we wouldn’t get otherwise so we’re pretty happy with the service overall.”