Lynk taxis to take bite of food delivery business
UK taxi app success is allowing Lynk expand into food in Ireland,
TAXI company Lynk is the latest firm to target a slice of the fast-growing home food delivery business.
It has agreed a deal with Offbeat Donuts, just one of a number of partnerships that will see the online-focused Dublin-based taxi company offer a home delivery service.
The move into delivery could set up a food fight on the streets after American giant Uber announced last week it had signed up with McDonald’s to bring its Uber Eats service to Ireland.
Lynk’s ambitious food plans are an expansion of its new Lynk Delivers parcel service, which has started making deliveries for corporate and domestic clients.
It has signed up 250 drivers to run the parcel service and CEO Noel Ebbs told the
Sunday Independent that within three years it could be larger than the company’s existing 1,500-strong fleet of taxis.
Although the delivery business has much tighter margins, it is still expected to raise about a quarter of the revenue of the current taxi business, he said.
“Food companies really don’t want to be managing their own drivers,” said Ebbs.
“They’d much prefer for a company like us to do it. The headache for them is getting the food from their outlet to their customer within 30 minutes.”
DUBLIN taxi company Lynk is setting up a new food delivery service as part of its parcel and package service, which it expects to generate turnover of €10m a year.
Lynk’s booming UK taxi business is helping it fund an assault on the Irish fast food delivery market, founder and CEO Noel Ebbs told the Sunday Independent.
Dublin taxi company Lynk is to operate deliveries for Offbeat Donuts and has already set up a number of other partnerships in the food sector. It is also in ongoing discussions with a “very well known” food chain about taking over deliveries for all of its outlets, said Ebbs.
The move into food is an expansion of the Lynk Delivers parcel service that the company launched in recent months. Ebbs expects to have as many drivers signed up within three years for its new parcel delivery service — including for the food business — as it currently has in its 1,500-strong taxi fleet.
The “immediate, on-time, 24-7” delivery fleet could eventually surpass Lynk’s taxi fleet, he said.
“I see it becoming really, really big,” he said. “We hope turnover from this will be about €10m per annum within three years and this will go nationwide.”
Lynk does not see itself as a direct competitor to app-based food ordering services because it plans to work directly with food companies as a delivery partner rather than allowing customers to order food directly through the Lynk app, said Ebbs.
“In fact, we see an opportunity to partner with apps like Deliveroo or Just Eat. The apps take in the orders, the food companies produce the food and we are in the middle. They are good at food and we are good at delivering. It’s a nice synergy because we already have the infrastructure and technology in place,” he said.
The food service is part of a wider parcel delivery service plan, Lynk Delivers, which has seen €250,000 invested in recent months, with a further €250,000 expected to be invested in software development.
The company launched its new taxi app in the Irish market in recent weeks and this is expected to soon include the option for both corporate and domestic customers to book the parcel service.
“It could be a parcel to go to a customer or maybe you forgot your keys and need them delivered to you,” said Ebbs. “This is scheduled delivery. The guy delivering your parcel has only got your parcel to deliver so you are not waiting for a van-load of parcels to be delivered before you get yours.”
Lynk, which was founded in Dublin by Ebbs in 2015, also operates in a number of UK cities under the brand name Riide and is now taking 750,000 bookings a week via its app, he said.
“We are really impressed with how that is working and that success is what is allowing us to do what we are doing here now in parcel and food deliveries,” added Ebbs.