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Deliveroo launches in Perth, debuts new look

UK-based Deliveroo launched in Perth on Tuesday, making this the fourth Australian city, after Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, that the on-demand food delivery service has entered since expanding to the country in November of last year.

The company has also announced a new look and logo, new products for alcohol and late night deliveries, as well as the likely November launch of its RooBox remote kitchens.

Deliveroo will start operating in a handful of central Perth neighbourhoods, including the CBD, Northbridge, East Perth, Leederville, Highgate, Mount Lawley and North Perth, with plans to extend coverage in the coming weeks and months, according to Deliveroo’s country manager Levi Aron.

“We have 46 restaurants on board at the time of launch,” Aron said. “These are mostly high-end gourmet restaurants that are local to Perth but they also include a handful of national chains like Zambrero, Ribs & Burgers and Jamie’s Italian that we were able to turn on straight away, since we partner with them in other cities already.”

Expansion to cities such as Perth is one reason the company recently raised $361 million in a Series E investment. “We did the capital raising in August for two reasons – one was to continue to innovate in terms of our apps for restaurants, drivers and customers, and our new technology for food delivery, RooBox.

“The other was for expansion – deepening our roots in cities where we already are and entering new cities in Australia and also new countries,” Aron said. The company is looking to expand its presence in the APAC region, where it already operates in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, according to Aron.

But the primary focus will be on Australia: “At the end of the day, we want to offer the service to as many Australians as possible.”

Deliveroo now has close to 1500 Australian restaurants on its platform and is growing its customer base in the country at a rate of 30 per cent per month. “We have a platform that is very sticky, once people try it, they keep using it once or twice a week,” Aron said.

Alongside the Perth launch, Deliveroo has debuted a new, brighter look and logo to reflect its transformation from a small London-only service to an expanding global company. Riders around the world have received equipment in the new look, designed for greater visibility and safety on the road.

“Our riders are paramount to our business and we want to ensure their safety,” Aron, who rides a Deliveroo bike himself on Sunday evenings, said.

The highly reflective kits will come in handy, as the company has also rolled out late night deliveries in high demand suburbs in Melbourne and Sydney on Tuesday, in addition to alcohol delivery in Melbourne.

This move allows Deliveroo customers to purchase alcohol when they order food from licenced restaurants in Melbourne, but not from bottle shops, as customers in the UK are able to do. “Our licence currently doesn’t allow us to work with bottle shops,” Aron said, a detail that customers don’t seem to mind. “We’ve been testing this feature in the background for a while and customers have really liked it.”

In November, Deliveroo plans to roll out its RooBox remote kitchens to bring on-demand delivery of high-end food to areas about a 30-45-minute drive outside of Melbourne and Sydney CBDs. “Places where lots of people live but without a large supply of great restaurants,” Aron said.

Deliveroo will sublease space in remote kitchens to a handful of its best restaurant partners. Aron said this concept gives restaurants a way to test new markets without the risk, while it enables Deliveroo to reach new customers. RooBox has already launched in the UK.

“This is food delivery 4.0,” Aron said.

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