When Gurpreet Sidhu and his business partner, Jeewan Sagu, bought domain names easyfood.co.uk and easyfood.com as a way to break Just Eat’s stranglehold on the online food delivery market the last thing they expected was to unwittingly become embroiled in a legal skirmish with Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
It was not long before they received a “cease and desist” letter from the billionaire’s lawyers, who zealously protect the brand. When they finally met up with Stelios and his legal team the three men had joined forces to serve up something radically different.
In their sights are the juicy fees charged by the likes of Deliveroo and Uber Eats. Just Eat, in particular, has devised a highly profitable recipe. Its £5bn empire is built on the 14% commission it levies on British curry houses, kebab shops and pizza joints.
Sidhu and Sagu aim to shake up the booming sector. EasyFood will charge restaurants and takeaways a flat monthly fee and help them build their own websites and apps.
The company began trading with a soft launch in Birmingham last Thursday. Two hundred takeaways and restaurants in and around the city have signed up, and 800 more are expected in the coming months. It will charge them £100 a month or £195 for a premium service, which comes with payments and data hardware.
