New website gives cafes and restaurants food for thought

UNDER THE RADAR:Brian Rooney, Mylunch.ie

MORE THAN 600,000 people work and study in Dublin every day, of whom some 60 per cent eat out. Because there’s no such thing as a free lunch, they spend an average of €8.50 each, which means a total spend of about €3 million a day.

None of this came as a big surprise to Brian Rooney and Derek Gallagher, who for years joined the daily hoards looking for lunchtime value. Rooney was a manager with KPMG and Gallagher was a strategist with Bank of Ireland at the time.

“What did strike us though was that there was very little information about what the various restaurants, bars and coffee shops had on offer,” recalls Rooney. “People have so little time now; they want to know in advance where they’re going and what to expect.”

After almost a year of research and focus groups, Mylunch.ie went live at the end of November. The idea was to give the capital’s food outlets an opportunity to display their wares on a daily basis, a strategy that is particularly important in the current climate where every customer counts.

So far, so predictable, you might think. However, as Rooney points out, there are two things that make Mylunch.ie different. The first is that its content is updated every day, giving outlets an opportunity to compete on good value and special offers.

“We were determined that this would not be one more stagnant website, never updated from one month to the next,” says Rooney.

“Quite the opposite: we send our restaurants a reminder every morning [and] we regularly speak to the chefs by phone as they’re completing their menus. So this is real-time information, and that’s hugely important from the customer’s point of view.”

About 150 outlets have joined the site, ranging from restaurants such as the Unicorn and Wagamama to pubs such as Doheny Nesbitts and chain outlets Cafe Sol and Subway. Those who want to have their offers updated daily pay a monthly fee of €65, while those at the lower end who are happy with a monthly update pay €30. This is how the website generates its revenue.

Mylunch.ie’s marketing strategy – the second thing that makes it different – has also proved attractive for outlets.

“We’re committed to spending 50 to 60 per cent of our monthly turnover on marketing, so the businesses who join us know they’ll benefit from their share of that additional exposure,” says Rooney.

“That’s currently €6,000 to €9,000 a month, even on a small projected turnover for year one of €150,000. And I think that – together with the fact that we had 30,639 hits to the site in the first month and 85,000 so far, which is pretty impressive – has been persuasive for food outlets who’ve been having a really quiet time during January.”

The chartered accountant and banking strategist – who did manage to secure bank funding for their business blueprint, by the way – plan to expand to Belfast in May or June and are drawing up plans for London, Manchester and Glasgow by the end of this year.

“We’re expanding, but we’re determined to be prudent,” says Rooney. “We see current growth of 20 per cent month on month continuing to the end of 2010 and then tailing off, probably to between 2 and 5 per cent month on month in 2012 as we saturate the Irish market . . .

“That means that our modest year-one turnover of €150,000 in 2010 should increase to €700,000 in the second year, 2011, which is when we see ourselves going into profit. Then we have Belfast and the UK and, luckily, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel for those.”

ON THE RECORD

Name: Brian Rooney

Company: Mylunch.ie www.mylunch.ie

Job: Co-founder and director

Age: 33

Background: Graduated from Queen's University Belfast in 2000 with a degree in chemical engineering, followed by an MA in computer science from Edinburgh University the following year. Then trained with Arthur Andersen and KPMG, where he qualified as a chartered accountant.

Joined Irish shipping company Seabess as finance director in November 2007. Co-founded Mylunch.ie with business partner Derek Gallagher in June 2009 and their website went live in November. Planning expansion to Belfast in May to June and to Britain before the end of the year.

Challenges: "The food sector is under severe financial pressure at the moment, so the big challenge for us is to convince retailers that new means of promoting themselves – specifically, in our case, the internet – are to be embraced, not treated with scepticism."

Inspired by: "We want to build a brand that people will relate to, and so Richard Branson has got to be the entrepreneur to emulate. He started as a student and has never looked back. It's about following your instinct, believing in your ideas, and not being afraid of taking a risk."

Most important thing learned so far: "This is one from my days as an auditor, I suppose: keep debt levels to the minimum. If you can avoid debt, do it at all costs, because debt can be crippling, especially in the current climate."