November 7 (SeeNews) - The Bulgarian unit of food delivery online platform Foodpanda said it has tested a delivery-by-drone technique to enhance its operational performance.
Tests were carried out with the support of the National Drone Organization and several of the company's vendor partners, Ivaylo Netsov, CEO of Foodpanda Bulgaria, told SeeNews on Tuesday.
The company is currently in the process of rebuilding its delivery and sales operations.
"We will grow significantly our delivery fleet, with new, fresh delivery crew, equipment and software. We will also strengthen our relationship with our vendors and improve the portfolio of our restaurants," Netsov said. "We will also improve our delivery service. Rebuilding our operations is basically the goal for this year, so we can grow after."
Netsov noted that Bulgaria is a food delivery market with a huge potential, as people who order food are just a fraction of the total population even in the capital Sofia.
"We see this as an opportunity to grow exponentially."
According to Netsov, there are still many restaurants in Bulgaria which offer services of different quality at their premises as compared to the home delivery channel.
"We have to educate the market that a customer who orders online is the same customer who might visit or already has been at the restaurant. It is unacceptable to deliver a dish of lesser quality or quantity at home than [the dish served] at the restaurant," he added.
Foodpanda Bulgaria, established in 2014, sees itself as a technology company providing added value to its partners by gathering data on different aspects of their operations that serve as a basis for analysis.
"Each restaurant we work with can receive a monthly performance review, can analyse the orders that they have or have not fulfilled. In this way we can make assumptions on the customers' behaviours and try to improve and avoid future mistakes," the CEO said.
Foodpanda is part of Germany-based Delivery Hero Group - the biggest food delivery platform in the world, operating in more than 40 markets worldwide. The company joined Delivery Hero in December 2016.