More major restaurant and pub groups sign with ground-breaking order and payment platform – to reopen safely amid huge social distancing challenge

OrderPay, the ordering and payment app, has announced further partnerships with a clutch of high-profile restaurant companies and pub groups as large swathes of the out-of-home food and drink market build towards a safe reopening in the coming weeks – and amid the challenges of social distancing.

The mobile ordering and payment solution first piloted with Pret a Manger last year, and was established with founding members Five Guys, PizzaExpress, Stonegate and Cote.

Now, more big-name brands have adopted the pioneering platform, with Wasabi, Tortilla, Drake & Morgan, Chopstix, K10, Dim T and Wildwood the latest operators to sign up – and several others close to being finalised. The deals will enable over 6,000 venues to offer a string of mobile-first order-and-payment solutions, with a focus on customer convenience and speed of service which will help thousands of venues to reopen whilst observing social distancing protocols.

The app launches at the beginning of July to coincide with restaurants, bars and pubs being able to re-open.    

The OrderPay solution incorporates a number of innovative and pioneering features, including the following:

• Leveraging beacon technology, the app automatically identifies where customers are sat in a venue, facilitating easy ordering and table service, minimising person-to-person contact
• The ‘Tap and Go’ functionality gives operators the ability to offer their customers a self-service solution through scanning and payment for a product off the shelf. With all operators looking for solutions which enable social distancing, this will reduce queueing and allow for greater customer throughput
• OrderPay ‘re-skins’ and locks the app to a particular brand as a customer crosses the venue’s entrance, so only that brand’s menu is accessible when in venue, eliminating the need for consumers to download numerous apps.

This app’s accelerated consumer debut has come in response to operator demand – due to the unprecedented market conditions.
 
Co-founder René Batsford, a former McDonald’s Europe executive, said: “We’re so pleased to be partnering such an impressive and well-known group of operators and humbled to be playing such a central part in helping the sector restart and rebuild, and to be providing some of the answers to the immense challenges of safely and successfully operating amid the requirements of social distancing.
 
“Regardless of the circumstances, we always felt that OrderPay would deliver a number of important and needed innovations to the market but the current challenges have only underlined how innovative technology can further support the sector. We look forward to doing our bit to help these brilliant brands and businesses navigate their way past lockdown, and to provide further solutions to aid the sector’s recovery and evolution.”
 
Founded by ex-senior executives from McDonald's, Accenture and Pret A Manger, OrderPay is backed by a council of founding operators, with more leading brands set to be confirmed over the coming weeks. Uniquely, OrderPay is run as a cooperative coalition, which sees 30% of the profits of the organisation shared between its members.