BigDish keeping busy as it works on gradual expansion

Restaurant yield management platform operator BigDish updated the market on its operations on Tuesday, announcing that it was launching Brighton on its platform next week.

The London-listed company said it believed that the Sussex seaside city was a “significant” location for BigDish, and upon launch it expected to increase restaurant numbers rapidly.

It added that it aimed to have all territory managers in place across the United Kingdom, subject to finding suitable candidates, by early September, which was currently its key focus.

As it announced on 21 June, BigDish said it was expecting to enter into a partnership with a UK technology platform after going live in Brighton.

“Over the past month, the territory managers in territory one and two have been meeting with existing restaurant partners with a view to ensuring that operations are running smoothly and determining where improvements can be made,” the board explained in its statement.

“The company believes it is important that all systems and processes are running smoothly and that these are scalable as the national rollout progresses.

“This focus on account management rather than new restaurant acquisition will balance out in due course.”

As a result of that, BigDish said it would now launch in Reading at a later date.

The board explained that there were three core components to its strategy - restaurant partner acquisition, technology development, and user acquisition.

It explained that the recruitment process that was taking place, both in the United Kingdom and in Manila, ensured that the first two components could be delivered.

The board said it believed that once a national footprint was achieved, alongside new functionality and features in the app, the pace of user acquisition would increase “significantly” across the UK.

“A separate restaurant partner website is being developed that will enable restaurants to on-board themselves to the BigDish platform.

“In addition, a blog will be launched which will have engaging content with a view to create a vibrant community of food lovers across the United Kingdom.

“This will also increase the visibility of BigDish across various online search engines.”

The company also announced on Tuesday that, in a bid to further support that user acquisition, it was launching a brand ambassador programme.

Following discussions with celebrities and well-known personalities over recent months, the firm said it was expecting to announce its first brand ambassador shortly.

The role of brand ambassadors would be to act as “Influencers” in order to increase user acquisition and customer engagement, which was expected to be achieved through social media, video advertisements and attending key events.

“Brand Ambassadors will be remunerated in shares rather than cash and any shares will have a restricted period from being able to sell,” the board said.

“As such, the company has issued 12,000,000 shares that are ring fenced for the brand ambassador programme.

“The company expects to sign up several brand ambassadors and to launch various media initiatives from the fourth quarter of this year onwards as BigDish increases its national footprint.”

BigDish also updated the market on the composition of its board on Tuesday, reporting that Jonathan Morley-Kirk would be moving from his non-executive director position to that of non-executive chairman, with company founder Aidan Bishop to move from executive chairman to executive director.

The board said that would enable Jonathan Morley-Kirk to have greater oversight of various regulatory and compliance work, and enable the firm to make improvements in that important part of the business.

In its announcement on 21 June, BigDish noted that Sanj Naha commented regarding a ‘media initiative’.

On Tuesday, it said it was expecting to update the market “several times” during the month of July including further detail regarding that ‘initiative’.

It said it had also issued 11,044,697 shares as part of its salary sacrifice scheme, and the conversion of debt into shares.

All members of the board and some management had opted to receive no remuneration in cash since the IPO in August last year, which the company said was due to them “having confidence” in the future of the firm, and to ensure the interests of the board and management were “completely aligned” with shareholders.

It was expected that the new shares would be admitted to trading around 4 July.

“It has been a very busy period for BigDish with the recruitment strategy,” said chief executive officer Sanj Naha.

“Having all territory managers in place across the United Kingdom by September would drive our growth, as well as having additional developers and restaurant and customer support personnel in Manila.

“Having worked previously at booking platforms such as TripAdvisor and Bookatable, I am aware of the importance of ensuring that every part of the business is built for scale.”

Naha said the recent focus on account management in the firm’s first two territories was “very healthy” for it at this stage.

“The summer period enables us to put our heads down and work hard on the 'non visible' aspects of the business.

“From September onwards, I expect BigDish to be firing on all cylinders across the whole country.”

Naha explained that he had also been “particularly pleased” with ongoing interest in BigDish from restaurant groups, explaining he was “confident” that the firm would see restaurant groups on the platform in due course.

“It has been a deliberate strategy to date to only approach independent restaurants and small groups.

“This has been done to ensure that the platform has a good selection of cuisines and restaurants and is not dominated by one particular brand.”

Finally, Naha said the launch of the company’s brand ambassador programme was a “fantastic milestone”.

“I believe that this will significantly boost our user acquisition strategy as well as bringing national awareness of BigDish both to the general public and to the restaurant sector.

“It is also great to see brand ambassadors becoming aligned with the vision of the company by becoming long term shareholders.”