Jamie's Italian to introduce click and collect service as part of growth strategy
Jamie's Italian will introduce a click and collect service in an attempt to drive lunchtime trade as the company attempts to dust off a bruising start to the year.
Unlike Wagamamas and Starbucks which have their own in-house app for the service, the Jamie Oliver brand is one of several who will use the newly developed Lunche App. Others include Yard & Coop, Red's True Barbecue and Tampopo.
In a statement, Jamie's Italian CEO Jon Knight said: "As part of our company strategy for growth we have explored utilising mobile ordering technology to unlock new opportunities in the market.
"We chose to partner with Lunche as this is a great product that will help drive sales and give us even more insight into customers perception of time and value at lunch time.
"We thrive on working with start-ups and look forward to being a part of the journey and watching Lunche grow as a business."
In June, six months after the brand entered a CVA, Knight told The Caterer his ambition was to get the franchise back on its feet by making the Jamie's Italian offering more accessible.
He said at the time: "The casual dining industry in the UK is an amazing one and we should be enormously proud of it. There are always people at the top of their game and others who are not quite where they want to be.
"All I want to do is get us back in a position where we can compete with our competitor set, and where we're offering great choice and accessibility to customers. For us, it's about fixing Jamie's Italian."
Lunche Founder and CEO Floyd Hutchinson said: "The UK's 32 million workforce remain the engine of the country's £20b lunch-to-go industry which is the largest and most advanced in Europe. Worryingly, the average worker takes just 34 minutes for their lunch break.
