Deliveroo, the growing on-demand food delivery company, today celebrates four years in business with more than 800 restaurants in the UAE as its partners.

Restaurant owners in Dubai and Abu Dhabi have reported a sustained growth in meal orders driven by Deliveroo that has allowed them to hire more staff and open new premises on the back of increased demand, the company said.

New internal Deliveroo data covering all orders in the UAE in 2016 reveals one of the key trends driving this growth in restaurants: customers are embracing the idea that a takeaway is not just for Thursday nights. In 2016, 8 per cent of monthly orders shifted towards Sunday-Wednesday compared to the previous year, signaling a ‘smoothing out’ of food orders across the week, it said.

This customer trend was addressed by the launch of Deliveroo for Business last September, a platform designed to simplify the process for companies ordering food for employees.

Deliveroo's partner restaurants include large chains such as Taqado Mexican Kitchen to small, independent outlets such as Joga. Orders grew by 650 per cent worldwide in 2016, with the company adding new restaurants to the platform on a weekly basis and now delivering great food across the UAE, it said.

Anis Harb, UAE general manager at Deliveroo, said: “As Deliveroo celebrates its fourth anniversary since launching in London in 2013, I am confident that our dedication to providing the best food delivery experience in the world will allow us to continue to rapidly expand across Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

"Deliveroo’s partner restaurants can utilise their excess kitchen capacity to generate an increase of up to 30 per cent in revenue without their own fleet of drivers and technology infrastructure, so our unique online delivery platform service is seen as a major asset to their business,” Harb said. - TradeArabia News Service