As foodpanda launches its operations in Berlin we took the chance to sit down with Artur Schreiber who will be leading foodpanda as it enters the German market. We chatted to Artur about what it means to launch a business in a matter of months, what his first foodpanda order was like, and what makes the service so special. Read on to find out more about what it means to be a start-up within a scale-up.
1. Artur, you recently took on the additional task of working for foodpanda Germany. What made you excited about this opportunity – why did you go for it?
Delivery Hero Germany is special because it’s our home market; our headquarters are here, we’re a German company. I personally live in Berlin. This is my home country. So it makes it special to me to be given this opportunity.
It felt like it was meant to be. For me, this is the next big challenge. Germany is a bigger market, it’s an interesting market, and a challenging one. I am up for this challenge and I would say it is the perfect next step for me.
2. What’s the status of operations right now? When will the service be available in Berlin and beyond?
We are live in Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain, and Kreuzberg but we are already expanding our operations throughout the whole city. In the next few weeks, we will also scale up our marketing and all our operations. We’re currently live with all of our three verticals, restaurants, pandamarkets (Delivery Hero’s own warehouses), and local shops. In the next few weeks, we will scale up to the whole of Berlin. We will be launching our operations in Frankfurt, Munich, and Hamburg in the fall.
3. You were part of building a successful business in Austria with mjam. Looking back at your time with mjam, what are you most proud of?
I am most proud of the team, the people, and the working culture that we created at mjam. It made it difficult to leave.
But also I think we created a great service. We were one of the most innovative companies and startups in Austria. I think we achieved a very good position for the company.
4. Delivery Hero already had operations in Germany a couple of years ago and are now back with foodpanda as the platform operating company, were there many things already in place that you could build upon – or was it rather like building an operation from scratch?
It feels like building a new operation from scratch really. Especially right now it feels like a startup within a scale-up, a startup within a big company.
It’s a big change but right now that is a good thing. We really know where we want to go, what we want to build, what service we want to offer, and what processes we need.
As we know where we are going, we can now build everything up at super speed.
5. What are some of the challenges you faced when launching the German business?
I think the biggest challenge was the timeline, the speed at which we launched the operation. Around mid-June, we had our first order, that is when the shops went live, and the restaurants went live.
So we were going live with all our operations, but at the same time, we were still hiring an entire team and are still hiring.
6. What were the biggest surprises for you during this process?
When we reached out to the first restaurants, many of them who used to work with us as foodora, or Lieferheld, were actually really happy that we were coming back. This was such a pleasant surprise. The initial very positive feedback and comments like: “I knew you were coming back. Finally, we’re happy that you’re back” were so nice to hear.
7. What makes foodpanda special from your point of view (compared to all the players that have entered the market recently)?
Our value proposition is that we’re a one-stop-shop. We offer food delivery from restaurants, Delivery Hero also started Dmarts, and we deliver from local shops. So customers don’t need to download two or three different apps. They just need foodpanda and they’re covered. But we are also the local player. We are a German company from this market. I think this is our second biggest advantage, that we are local, but we can also leverage all the experience from all around the globe, where we also operate.
8. Have you already tried out the service yourself? If so, did it arrive on time?
Yes, I’m a regular customer already, at least to the office. We don’t yet deliver to where I live but it’s on the agenda, it’s a high priority.
I placed one of the very first orders, I think it was order number two or three in the very early phase. It took around one hour to order because we kept stopping to take notes on everything that still needed to be adjusted. The actual delivery was very quick and on time. It was all very monitored, with a lot of people sitting around the phone watching.
This was at the beginning of June and now five weeks later we have a fully running operation, which is amazing to witness. So now we don’t need to closely monitor when ordering any more. It’s all running smoothly.
9. What do you expect to be the biggest challenge going forward?
We are re-entering a market that has become truly multi-faceted in terms of both offering and customer demands – a perfect environment for us to bring our expertise to, as we believe customers are ready for it. Over the past years, we have kept an eye on the German market and still see tremendous opportunities to improve the customer experience based on what we have developed in the other markets we operate in. For this reason, we truly believe that we have extra value to bring to the local ecosystem and deliver an amazing experience to our customers.
10. Looking ahead, what achievement would make you most proud? What’s something that you really want to accomplish with foodpanda?
We want to be the company and the brand that not only makes the customer happy, but we also want to make our employees happy. This is very important to me.
We want to be a good partner to restaurants and local shops, and have them really see the business value that we bring. We also want to be perceived by the local communities as positive. It’s about the whole community and about the whole ecosystem.
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