Bay Tours and Charters operators Kerren and Ken Withington and chef Sam Clark are ready to start a Hawke's Bay meal delivery service next week as lockdown lifts. Photo / Paul Taylor
Bay Tours and Charters operators Kerren and Ken Withington and chef Sam Clark are ready to start a Hawke's Bay meal delivery service next week as lockdown lifts. Photo / Paul Taylor
Two new food delivery initiatives are arriving on the market just in time for restaurant-starved Hawke's Bay residents to revel in the lifting of level 4 restrictions.
Bay Tours and Charters has started an online meal plan delivery service and local man Lewis O'Donnell has started a food delivery appcalled Utake.
Bay Tours & Charters owners Kerren and Ken Withington wanted to make use of their time in lockdown without tourism business to "look at something that would benefit our whole community".
First access to the service was available to Bay Tours' Tour Club members but it is now open to the general public.
"We have a strong membership database of local senior citizens across Hawke's Bay who we usually take on tour around the region and around New Zealand, but we knew that this period under alert levels would be particularly isolating and challenging for them".
The two paired with Napier restaurant Central Fire Station Bistro to create the meals.
Executive chef Sam Clark said the restaurant was facing a "very uncertain future" when they began discussions with Bay Tours.
"Straight away our philosophies aligned – we focus on supporting local producers to make simple and delicious meals that locals can enjoy, every aspect of our business has been about supporting local.
"All we needed was a new way to connect with diners," he said.
The service will provide multiple freshly prepared meals a week to customers through contactless delivery to residents' doors.
"Our purpose for launching Meal Delivery Hawkes Bay is simple – we want to support local suppliers, support local staff and help re-connect our community".
The service has meal plans for one or two people and monthly subscriptions ranging in price from $86 to $470 with a range of dietary options able to be catered for.
Meals can be delivered to Napier, Hastings, Taradale and Havelock North with their urban delivery fee and to Waipukurau with an additional delivery fee of $10.
The company will be donating a portion of proceeds to local charities chosen by the services participants and giving away one meal plan for 1 randomly to one of the website visitors who adds their email in the launch week.
Lewis O'Donnell (left) has created food delivery app Utake which partners with local restaurants such as Sai Thai to make contactless deliveries to customers. Photo / Paul Taylor
Food delivery app Utake has a similar aim of helping local businesses with a mission of a 30 per cent increase in sales for local businesses.
The app was created by Hawke's Bay local Lewis O'Donnell alongside development team members in Auckland and will be available when the alert level 4 lockdown lifts.
"We really set it up in support of the restaurant and café community and also the transportation industry," the founder said.
"We've had some feedback from some people so far and they're definitely in support".
The local app will provide contactless delivery or pick-ups from Hawke's Bay restaurants.
While the app is yet to launch O'Donnell said it "really has some potential".
So far, Utake has five restaurant partners signed up in Napier and can confirm that Thai Lotus in Taradale and Sai Thai are on board.
They are also in communication with restaurants in Hastings and Havelock North O'Donnell said.
The service will keep restaurants limited to five in each city for the first two weeks while they establish data of demand and driver-delivery ratio.
After this they are open to more restaurant partners coming on board.
Restaurants can sign up and drivers can apply online.
Users can order and pay for food through the app.
O'Donnell said they have had many drivers sign up the past two days and that there is a diverse range of people ready for the opening.
Rates for drivers and restaurants were competitive with Utake taking a 10 per cent transaction fee, and 90 per cent of the delivery fee going to the drivers.
There is a flat $7 delivery fee and users can track their delivery from the restaurant to their home.
Utake is an automated platform but a separate account manager will be involved to manage client accounts.
In future, O'Donnell said they were open in expanding to other regions to support local hospitality.
Utake can be found online at https://www.utake.co.nz/ and Bay Tours and Charters meal delivery service at https://www.mealdeliveryhawkesbay.co.nz/.
