A pair of Dads from Croydon are planning to take on the giants of the food delivery industry with their very own borough-specific company.

Croydon men Andy Szebeni and Paul Sweeney will launch Croydon Eats on March 3, partnering with dozens of businesses in the area to get tasty food delivered to communities across the area for less than their multinational rivals.

Andy and Paul, who both live locally and have decades of business experience together, said they hope to take on the likes of Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat by being smaller, more cost effective and less greedy.

"We are able to undercut the majors because our fixed costs are much lower and we are less greedy.

"We don’t have shareholders to keep satisfying, stock market fees, expensive TV ads to fund or a network of overpaid sales people," Andy told the Croydon Guardian.

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The genesis of the idea came during the first coronavirus lockdown when the aforementioned food delivery giants saw their convenience soar for the millions of housebound Britons now staying at home to stop the spread of the virus.

"We had a lot of contact with restaurants who were really struggling and we started to realize just how much Uber Eats and Deliveroo charge, and thought: there's an opportunity here.

"One of the issues with these multinationals is that they are not interested in the local, they are interested in impressing big international investors," Andy said, differentiating the pair's business model as basically the other end of the scale.

Like their competitors, Croydon Eats will run on an app for users to order with, yet their Croydon-centric approach distinguishes them.

"We are local so can easily fix any issues that might arise with the terminals," Paul pointed out.

"Plus we know the market because we live here so can help advise on the best marketing strategies," he added.

"We saw in Lockdown 1 how difficult it was for restaurants and how takeaways were being overcharged by the big 3 so we saw the opportunity for a disruptor to come into the market."

Perhaps most interesting of all though is that, while Croydon Eats differ from their competitors in terms of scale, they also want to take a different approach regarding an essential human component of the industry - the drivers.

Uber Eats and Deliveroo have been widely criticised for their use of 'Zero Hours' contracts that mean delivery drivers or riders have no guarantee of fixed pay on a daily basis.

Indeed, Uber Eats recently lost a Supreme Court case arguing their drivers were "self-employed", and now must consider them workers with the associated rights that entails.

In a challenge to their competitors 'gig economy' approach, Paul and Andy said they hope to offer the drivers they take on contracts and full employment dues like holidays and sick pay.

"We will employ our own drivers. For our drivers it is not a zero hours contract. Some of them will be covering more than one outlet, or stick with one busier one all day.

"Some of our clients say they feel their drivers are being messed around by some of the other brands in the industry and not treated very well.

"We can see there is a margin there to provide them with pensions and holidays and decent working conditions. There's no reason not to do that," Andy said.

To sign up to Croydon Eats ahead of the launch, click here for more info.