Red, green or pink, food delivery riders continue to do their part in helping to keep us all safe at home as a majority of Malaysia complies with the Movement Control Order (MCO 2.0). With restaurants only allowed to offer take-out services, F&B operators pin their hopes on delivery orders while awaiting diners to visit their outlets again when things get better. 

Seven months down the road, airasia food with its signature ‘Red’ delivery bag and some of the most good-looking delivery squads in town (it’s true!) has grown exponentially, with new merchants signing up every day and riders adding more delivery mileage every second. 

F&B Operators: Food delivery to trend in 2021

Desonny Tuzan, founder of Charlie’s Cafe & Bakery, a neighbourhood cafe in Taman Bukit Desa specialising in home-cooked comfort food, commented: “More F&B businesses are on the digital and delivery bandwagon, and we are experiencing more competition in terms of online food business compared to the first lockdown period last year. To counter this, we are very much focused on our food quality to make a better impression for our customers. Food delivery makes up 95% of our current business and I foresee that it will continue to grow and eventually make up to 50% of total business.”

Carmen Lau, owner of Dáo, a dessert shop in Subang Jaya that focuses on bringing the best soy bean products, shared: “After the first MCO, we are more aware of the public’s views and needs, hence we are able to provide better and more suitable bundles of our products to fulfil all of our customer's needs in these trying times. Like it or not, food delivery services are here to stay, and the range of customers in terms of demographics are from all levels of society now. We are glad that we have food delivery service to support our business during this pandemic.”

Apart from Charlie’s Cafe & Bakery and Dao, airasia food features a total of 1,100 merchants and growing. Among the popular ones, apart from airasia’s very own Santan, are Pasta Panas, Flour, Kubis & Kale, Tony Roma’s, Sepiring, and Din Tai Fung.

Helping more F&B businesses and the community during MCO 2.0

The second time around (yes, we’re talking about MCO 2.0), Malaysians have gotten accustomed to what needs to be done during a lockdown, and so are F&B operators. Many who have pivoted from only dine-in to also include delivery in the previous year, are pulling a strong game with new menus and promotional offers to ensure business sustainability throughout the movement control order.

Sabrina Khaw, Head of airasia food shares that: “Food delivery is now more than ever, an essential revenue stream, if not a primary one, for our merchants. Hence, we continue to run on flat-rate delivery packages, enabling merchants to earn more as it is only equivalent to 10% of commission rates, one of the lowest in the market. We also observed an increase in new merchant sign-ups within a short period once MCO2.0 was announced, especially in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur which vary from small scale restaurants to larger chain outlets.”

To enable Malaysians to savour their favourite meals during MCO 2.0, airasia food is offering Unlimited Free Delivery throughout the whole MCO period for orders within Klang Valley, with a delivery radius of 15km from the outlet. 

Desonny of Charlie’s Cafe & Bakery remains optimistic in facing the current challenges, "We choose airasia food as our delivery partner because of the support and assistance given by the team, we hope that airasia food can grow faster, continue to be innovative with their technology and give the top two leading food delivery platforms a run for their money,” he added. 

On the other hand, Dao observes an improvement of sales due to delivery services, and Carmen added that “Food delivery services are definitely a great help to all F&B businesses during MCO. It is safe to say with the recent addition of airasia food to our delivery platform, we can see a growth of 30% in less than a year. If you like great deals and a responsible delivery partner, airasia food is the way to go. I hope food delivery companies and restaurants can work together to provide better, greener, faster and cheaper services to the people.”

Keeping up with food distribution

With more people staying at home and a continued surge in food delivery orders, keeping up with food distribution is amongst the top priority for Teleport, the logistics arm under airasia digital, and the delivery partner for airasia food. 

Pete Chareonwongsak, CEO of Teleport said: “In a short period of time, we have successfully grown our small delivery team to approximately 1,500 in Malaysia. Due to the latest reinstatement of the MCO, our orders are up by 4 times our usual average and the numbers are rising, especially with our Unlimited Free Delivery offer. We are also pleased to welcome back many former airasia Allstars from cabin crew, pilots, aircraft technicians, ramp officers, guests services and others to be our delivery partners, or also known as Teleporters. Many of them had to switch job roles when affected by the pandemic and we are happy to provide job opportunities to those in need during these difficult times. 

We are constantly looking for new Teleporters to join us, and anyone who possesses a mode of transport whether it be a motorbike or a car can sign up. We are looking to aggressively expand to cities such as Ipoh, Seremban, Johor Bahru, Penang, Kota Bharu, Kuching and Miri - so if you’re in one of these cities and want to be a Teleporter (we have really cool uniforms too), you can sign up easily by visiting teleport.asia/deliverypartner.”

To expand its delivery into seven more cities across Malaysia, Teleport will also begin its very own Community Entrepreneur Programme in February 2021 - a program catered for enterprising individuals to grow Teleport’s delivery service in the specific cities. Interested individuals may apply at teleport.asia/TheNextTony by 29 January 2021

To all foodies and businesses beyond the Klang Valley area, hang tight as airasia food is coming to you soon. 

To check out what’s on the menu, download the airasia Asean super app and click on the ‘Food’ icon or visit airasia.com/food.