With big tech charging massive food delivery fees, and making it hard for restaurants to remain profitable as a result, a local solution is focused on providing the fairest solution for restaurants and drivers a like.

Dave and Ash at Bite Local are changing the game one meal at a time!

We spoke to Dave who told us the whole story...

The Bite Local story (in text)

"Bite Local is basically a local food delivery service. 

The idea was actually born out of COVID. So back at the start of March, April 2020, Bite Local was born as a concept, really just an opportunity where I thought we could actually provide a better service than what was being provided at a cheaper rate that was actually better for everyone in the community. 

Look, food delivery was obviously on the rise and people want to sit at home and order food. 

And we're creating more comfortable houses for ourselves, people. 

Booming globally

And it's really an industry that's booming across the world. It took a bit longer in Australia, but it's here and it's going to get bigger and bigger. And I think when we saw the huge fees that these big overseas food delivery services are charging restaurants, that's where the opportunity came in. 

Initially it was about just providing a local service. In my local community, there was no real vision to to take it any bigger than that. I thought I can help some local restaurants who are really struggling through COVID provide a better and cheaper service. 

Then when we saw, I guess, the engagement we're getting from restaurants, we thought, look, we can take this to other parts of Australia or even the world because it's something that works and is scalable. 

Getting the tech right

It's really about getting the technology right first. That's a big part of it. People really want the ease and convenience of an app, so it was about creating the app and then having that linking through to the other technical platforms that make it easy for someone to actually pick up and plug and play in a different area, whether it's a different suburb of Melbourne or a different area of Australia.

It took us really 12 months to really refine what Bite Local was going to be and how it was going to work and getting all of those processes right. And now we feel we have that model really, really well put together. 

Franchising the concept

We have a really great onboarding and operational manual that we can share with our franchisees. So as Bite Local grows, we can really train people really quickly and get them up and running really fast so they can actually run their own Bite Local in their own community. 

Basically from day one, they can hit the ground running. It fits the franchisee model really well because the whole idea of local is being local. 

So we thought, look, we can set up other people running Bite Local for us, but then we, then we're not local anymore. 

So the franchise model is perfect for us because it can be anywhere that person gets the mission of Bite Local and they set it up in their local area where they have relationships with some restaurants, relationships with sporting groups to get the community on board. 

It's really about them being local in that area and providing that relationship. 

Connection and community

It's about connection and community. Like I said at the start, that's really important. There's really three key things for a local business owner (franchisee) to be looking at. So they're wearing three hats, basically. 

One is the restaurant relationship that's really key.

So again, it's something that our competitors do poorly. There's no relationship. We're all about relationships. So we're in here at restaurants, meeting our restaurant owners on how we can work with them to provide a better service and build their business. 

That's the first one. Restaurants. 

Second one is managing a team of drivers. 

So Bite Local is actually supporting franchisees with the hiring and recruiting of drivers and the management. But the franchisee has to actually make sure their drivers are going to be turning up in uniform. They're happy they’re looked after. 

That's really important to have that management. 

And the third component (of the franchisee’s role) is that connection with the community. 

So being out there in the streets, being involved in community activities, sponsoring local sporting clubs, it's really about just that community engagement, the type of person that we're looking for, really. It's really anyone who gets the mission. 

Sure, it's important they have some business acumen because they're running a business and they need to be watching all the different areas of their business. But what we're looking for is people who get the mission and are really customer focused. 

So people who are happy to go out and meet restaurant owners, happy to work with different groups in the community to try and build that Bite Local reputation and and build a community around Bite Local. 

Flexible franchise set-up

So that's really the key area we're looking for, customer centric and mission focused. Look, Bite Local really sit up as a great business someone can grow, but not necessarily be 100% in from the start.

So some of our current franchisees work in other jobs and they're able to build their Bite Local  business part time while they're doing their other jobs. 

So this job works really well because they can spend a couple of hours a day meeting with restaurants and slowly building it. 

And from there, their idea is to eventually transition over to Bite Local full time. But they're able to do that slowly. 

Growth industry

Bite Local  is part of a growth industry. We know that. So there's a real opportunity for someone to get involved at the early stages and really build this. It's fairly low cost entry and as I mentioned before, it could be from any any industry. 

The background is not really important. You could be currently an Uber driver that you're sick of driving yourself. You want to actually start your own empire delivery business. 

So it could be from anyone in any background. But we think this is a really good opportunity for someone to pick up our offering, build it in their own local area, and build something really great for themselves. 

Owner operator focused

At the moment, the business is really set up for an owner operator to kind of get their hands dirty, get in and really own that relationship and own the business. 

So it's probably more suited for someone who is looking to do that rather than just someone to plunk some money into it. It's really about people that want to have their own business, run their own business, and build their own business."

Find out more about Bite Local HERE