Getting the dining formula right

By Rhonda Dredge

Everyone in Melbourne is swapping stories about takeaway and the Hof Downtown is keeping up a steady delivery with a new dining app that reduces the cost from 35 to 2.9 per cent.

The restaurant is making all of its traditional German meals at the Docklands site.

Instead of using global delivery services such as UberEats it has partnered with a local company Mr Yum.

“This has made a 100 per cent difference,” manager Philipp Hockenberger said. “Everyone knows that hospitality doesn’t involve big margins.”

He said other platforms were charging 25 per cent or more. For a Friday night order worth $100 they would be out of pocket by more than $20.

My Yum is a web-based digital menu with a code that can be scanned, taking the customer to an ordering page.

“This is a big help at a difficult time for business so please order this way,” a notice on the restaurant’s door read.

Mr Hockenberger said one of the advantages for business was that “all of the data belongs to you”.

He said the restaurant was doing its own deliveries using staff on JobKeeper payments while Mr Yum handled the technical aspects of orders.

“It’s a really beautiful thing. These guys have reduced the fee now in the second lockdown from 4.5 per cent 2.9 per cent. It’s a little but more than a bank fee. Everything helps.”

The Docklands restaurant is more like a factory these days as it gets ready to deliver statewide for Oktoberfest.

“We’ve got a really busy weekend in front of us,” Mr Hockenberger said, with bottles to fill with lager and boxes to fill for delivery around the state.

On the recommended list for beer drinkers is the German version of the pizza called a Flammkuchen – a flat bread with sour cream, caramelised onion, ham and chives which the restaurant introduced into Australia. The restaurant sells about 100 per week.

Delivery is free within a five-kilometre radius of Docklands •