Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Local Focus: Eat Local app taking on Uber Eats for regional hospitality

Nathan Morton
By Nathan Morton
Multimedia Journalist·NZ Herald·
1 May, 2020 11:45 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Takeaways deliveries from a Kiwi-owned company. Made with funding by NZ On Air.

Eating food that someone else has cooked is top of many people's wish lists now that we've moved into alert level evel 3. And it's going to be made a whole lot easier thanks to Eat Local NZ, a Kiwi-built web app taking on the global giants.

"Obviously Covid hit and everything went bonkers," said Tim McLeod, founder of Eat Local.

"All of our local venues were all closed. We were walking the streets past all these venues we know and love closed up with the Covid notices on the door.

"I pivoted away from my day job and my usual work, [and] tried to create a solution that would be better for businesses and better for New Zealand."

This app is a money saver for regional hospitality businesses - one of our heaviest-hit industries.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We're not going to just focus on main centres," McLeod said. "We've created this as a community platform, so it's fitted for customers, venues and drivers anywhere in New Zealand."

And it's attracted plenty of attention, thanks to Nigel Latta giving it a shout-out.

"It's a funny story, he just called me out of the blue. I've been taking phone calls from anyone I can pick the phone up from - cafe owners, anyone really. He gave me some advice - use a few more words, tell your story and this is what I'd like to do. I was like 'yeah man, go for it'.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I got up this morning, saw some activity on social media and thought 'right, I'm gonna take the advice'."

Eat Local NZ takes just a 5 per cent charge for commission and delivery, as opposed to the much higher rates charged by some international platforms. For restaurants and cafes in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, innovations like this could be the difference between their businesses surviving, or not.

"It's the small businesses that always find it the hardest to create an online shop, then take orders and deliveries - it's way more than any business of that size can really sustain," Mcleod said.

"So we've templated that and made it as easy as possible for them to do it themselves. I'd like to be surprised, I'd like to see people use it in ways I haven't anticipated. But the simplest is get online, take orders and don't get screwed by extortionate fees."

Discover more

New Zealand

Local Focus: Shrink-wrap solution gives builders head start at level 3

26 Apr 11:29 PM
New Zealand

Local Focus: Sikh charity spreads south from Takanini to Tauranga

28 Apr 11:46 PM
New Zealand

Local Focus: Music scene hits 'a brick wall'

04 May 01:25 AM
New Zealand

Local Focus: Foodbanks and commercial kitchens to the rescue

09 May 10:20 PM

Eat Local NZ will launch around New Zealand next Monday.

Made with funding from

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

Police warn gangs after major drug operation

18 Jun 06:04 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

'Life-changing': International flights return to Hamilton Airport

18 Jun 05:23 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

Police deal blow to Greazy Dogs' meth production

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Police warn gangs after major drug operation

Police warn gangs after major drug operation

18 Jun 06:04 AM

Police arrested 20 Greazy Dogs members over alleged meth crimes in Bay of Plenty.

'Life-changing': International flights return to Hamilton Airport

'Life-changing': International flights return to Hamilton Airport

18 Jun 05:23 AM
Police deal blow to Greazy Dogs' meth production

Police deal blow to Greazy Dogs' meth production

'I hate him': Partner of slain Tribesman lays blame for death at president's feet

'I hate him': Partner of slain Tribesman lays blame for death at president's feet

18 Jun 03:00 AM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP