SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2024
Not everyone sees and seizes an opportunity during a crisis, especially when it’s as big and unprecedented as the Covid outbreak. When lockdowns were imposed last year, the economy was hit badly and the uncertainty it caused led to large-scale job cuts all over.
However, a group of young entrepreneurs from Goa refused to simply wait for the economy to return to normalcy and decided to tackle the problems they and others around them were facing.
Coming from a hospitality background, they were aware of people who had lost jobs and also businesses, such as small enterprises that were struggling to stay afloat due to the pandemic.
Against that backdrop, their venture ‘Order Local Goa’ (OLG) was born and today, over a year later, it has already grown to be a well received product.
OLG was founded in September 2020 by a trio of aspiring entrepreneurs from Goa with the purpose of developing a self-sustainable ecosystem in the State by supporting food, beverage and essential businesses run and owned by locals and also delivering groceries all across Goa.
The trio Marc Fremiot Fernandes (Taleigao), Hridayvar Godwins (St Cruz) and Anthony L (Panjim) – put their heads together and the OLG came into existence.
In line with their vision of supporting locally owned and locally-run businesses, they partnered with Goan families and suppliers for fresh fruits and vegetables, most of which are locally grown and made available to them.
They also noticed a huge discord among restaurant owners, primarily caused due to the escalating commissions being charged by existing food delivery services in Goa. They pointed out that with existing operational costs already being a burden on such businesses, losing even more revenue to delivery services are leaving owners with barely any ways to maintain their profits.
Thus, they now offer on-demand food delivery to customers in Porvorim, Panjim, Taleigao and Bambolim areas from restaurants and offer scheduled deliveries of daily essentials, fruits and vegetables throughout the major cities of Goa.
“Our company is an on-demand, hyperlocal, food delivery service aimed at offering the utmost convenience to Goans who want to order from their favourite restaurants or even just their everyday essentials,” said Marc Fremiot Fernandes, OLG Managing Partner.
“We started in peak Covid times when most businesses were temporarily shut down and being an entrepreneur. I wanted to help the restaurants’ who weren't on Swiggy and Zomato, due to their higher commission structure remain operational. Our delivery boys at the time were boys who had faced the axe from larger hospitality chains in the State. The positive response from the restaurants and our customers is what kept us going,” said Marc, who lives in Taleigao.
“Employing and offering an opportunity to work for locals who need the money to provide it to their families at home is one of our driving motivations. We presently also provide part time students and needy families with an opportunity to earn an income instead of sitting at home,” he added.
Having had the experience of entrepreneurship, hospitality and business development, Marc, recalled the time of the pandemic and how he couldn’t just sit around and see people suffer in terms of receiving basic items.
He thus decided to start the business and roped in Godwins, who left a lucrative job in the hospitality industry and dived headfirst into the journey. The third OLG managing partner Anthony D, is from Panjim.
Marc further remarked that the resilience shown by Goan businesses in these times also inspired him and he is hopeful of making a dent of a difference towards creating something impactful.
With the Order Local Goa customer app receiving 1000+ downloads in just a few months since its release and multiple orders being placed directly from their customers, the entrepreneurs attributed their success to the fact that they were solving a major requirement that the sector had been facing for a while.
“Many businesses, especially supermarkets have of course tried, time and again, to set up their own delivery networks in areas with most demand. In times of low demand, many of them have successfully managed offering free deliveries too. However, logistic efficiency is no mean feat and needs a dedicated team for absolute coordination in times of overwhelming demand,” said Hridayvar, who lives in St Cruz.
“Food vendors and essential product merchants have set up businesses that rely on being operationally efficient within the four walls of their organisation. Dividing one’s attention beyond this environment towards outdoor deliveries eventually ends up being a recipe for disaster, with many occasions in which vendors find themselves short on staff. The smart choice is always outsourcing that service to someone who is fully dedicated to logistics and that’s exactly where Order Local Goa comes in,” he explained.
They also observed that prevalent exorbitant commissions had discouraged some of the restaurant operators from the delivery market completely even though they wanted to use this option to help them with their business at a time when there was a drop in customers visiting their establishments but preferring to order takeaways.
"We started by targeting these restaurants as we wanted to support them through a cost effective delivery mechanism through a minimal charge,” Hridayvar added further.
OLG’s primary focus has been to cater to the demand of restaurant dishes and everyday essentials. All forms of packaging are taken care of by their partners, while they are dedicated to planning and executing the deliveries.
While they have more than 40 partners, they provide a daily delivery service option to the restaurants and scheduled delivery options to groceries and essential stores.
Hridayvar added that the established restaurants and food vendors who already have a loyal customer base that they cater to, who are more comfortable with discussing and placing their - customised - orders directly with the restaurant. He added that they even offer their partners the option of routing their whole direct order process through them, be it over a call, WhatsaPP or text and they then handle the delivery part.
The entrepreneurs also shed light about their future plans.
“As a service based start-up in the IT industry, our primary aim is more about effectively expanding the reach of our services than just about generating pure revenue. We are now working towards making our on-demand services available in every corner of the State with a drastic increase in the range of deliverable products and partnerships,” Marc concluded.
