Foodpanda, popular online food delivery service, has launched a pilot for quick meal delivery in Gurgaon. Promising delivery time of under 30 minutes, the food options range from North Indian to Chinese combo meals from select restaurants; Happy Hakka, Tughlaq, and Biryani Art.
It does not come as a surprise that the offer is not like Dominos where one can get the meal in 30 minutes or less, since that is fast food. Keeping in mind that the preparation of a full fledged meal itself can actually take a lot of time, this is a bold step from Foodpanda to implement it.
Talking about the pilot initiative, Saurabh Kochhar, CEO of Foodpanda India, stated, “The thought behind this originated with the desire to make available pre-set portions of favourite combos within 30 minutes of ordering. We are also cognizant of the fact that most of our corporate users prefer ordering meal combos instead of separate meals. We are doing a pilot run in Gurgaon with 3 restaurants and are confident these curated meals will be enjoyed by our customers.”
Foodpanda will be accepting orders eligible for express delivery from 12:00pm to 4:00pm, which is the lunch time. The meals will not be very expensive, in fact they will cost between Rs 149 to Rs 225 and will be delivered in tower boxes made of plastic, exactly like how we used to have tower tiffin boxes as shown on Indian television.
Well, it makes sense to start the pilot for corporate professionals in Gurgaon, living far away from home to get access to delicious dishes as a combo and not separate food items.
Recent Foodpanda Developments
Foodpanda had recently partnered with IRCTC to deliver food items to train passengers at prominent stations. The food items will have to be booked 2 hours in advance, but you’ll receive completely hot and fresh food delivered to you.
However, Foodpanda has had their share of problems – In December 2015, they fired over 500 employees and stopped delivery in six cities in India.
Foodpanda has invested a lot in India – including acquiring 2 major food delivery startups – TastyKhana and Justeat, but they have found it tough in an already congested food delivery market.
Rumours have been afloat that parent company Rocket Internet has been trying to sell Foodpanda business in India, and even at a very low price tag of $10 to $15 million, they have not been able to find a buyer.
Now, with this development in Gurgaon, it seems they are planning to invest further in this business to make it a success.
We will keep you posted with further developments.
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