March 29, 2024

Erichoffer

Savvy business masters

F&B businesses to receive support for food delivery orders with new Enterprise Singapore booster package

SINGAPORE: Food and beverage (F&B) businesses with delivery orders will receive support from a new Enterprise Singapore booster package.

The package comes as the COVID-19 situation in Singapore develops, impacting the sales and profitability of such businesses, Enterprise Singapore said in a news release on Saturday (Apr 4).

The Food Delivery Booster Package will reduce the business costs of selling on three key food delivery platforms – Deliveroo, foodpanda and GrabFood. This package will support both new entrants and existing ones on these platforms.

On Friday, the Ministry of Health (MOH) issued additional measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, only allowing essential services and related supply chain activities to continue.

​​​​​​​READ: Essential businesses will stay open even as most workplaces are to close from next Tuesday

In line with this, F&B outlets can open only for takeaway and/or delivery from Apr 7 to May 4. Dine-in services will not be allowed.

“With the additional measures, sales and profitability of F&B outlets would be impacted due to the drop in dine-in sales and the associated costs of using online food delivery platforms,” Enterprise Singapore said.

There is also expected to be a higher demand for food deliveries, the agency’s deputy CEO Mr Ted Tan said.

“With the implementation of stricter safe distancing measures, the demand for food delivery is expected to increase significantly, by as much as two to three times as compared to previous months,” he explained.

To help lower business costs from delivery and takeaway operations for F&B businesses, Enterprise Singapore will fund five percentage points of the commission cost charged by the above three delivery platforms.

There will be no cap on the qualifying food delivery transaction value, it said.

“In the immediate term, the Food Delivery Booster Package will help manage the business costs of F&B businesses for food delivery orders so that they can stay open for business and adapt their operations accordingly,” Mr Tan said.

“This is also a good time for businesses to optimise their business models for online sales.”

READ: Most workplaces to close for one month from Apr 7 to curb spread of COVID-19

To be eligible for the Food Delivery Booster Package, F&B businesses must sell food that was prepared on-premise for immediate consumption, the agency said, adding that this includes smaller establishments like hawker stalls and cafes, and larger ones like food caterers and restaurants.

F&B businesses already on any of the three food delivery platforms are eligible for the package and do not need to apply. For the rest, they can approach the platforms to find out more.

GRABFOOD WELCOMES MOVE

GrabFood, one of the participating food delivery platforms, welcomed the Food Delivery Booster Package, saying it complements existing measures the platform has already put in place.

“In the last few weeks, we have refined our merchant onboarding programme and ramped up our operations such that more F&B and daily essentials merchants can list themselves and start their new digital businesses on GrabFood and GrabMart platforms quickly,” Dilip Roussenaly, head of GrabFood Singapore shared.

“GrabFood will also allow our new merchants to defer payment of their account activation fee, which starts from S$100 and offset it via food orders.

“We hope that all of these efforts will collectively help support our merchant-partners through this challenging period.”

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