Local businesses are ready to utilise a Watford-centric food delivery app that is launching next week.

Watford Eats will be a joint-venture run by Saghir Shah and his son Gohar, which takes on rival apps such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat – but with a greater focus on helping local eateries.

Unlike the food delivery giants that can take commission from 30 per cent up to sometimes 50 per cent, the upcoming app will take just seven and a half per cent commission from businesses using this service.

Around 30 local takeaways and restaurants will be available at launch on Wednesday (July 27).

Watford Observer: Saghir Shah and his son GoharSaghir Shah and his son Gohar

Mr Shah said he is “pretty excited” to start the service and help local independent restaurants in Watford.

As well as the independent venues, Pepe’s Piri Piri have also signed on to the app.

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He said: “We saw an opening in the market that nobody was addressing before, we have the big boys but nothing in between.

“So this is where we come in. We have a much lower commission rate – seven and a half per cent – we also are giving the hardware away to the takeaways so they don’t have any set-up fees.

“We set up the menus for them and install the terminal for them.”

Mr Shah said it was important to make the transition service into the app free and easy as he understands that many places “have been struggling” in recent years.

All takeaways and restaurants that are part of the app so far will use their own drivers to respond to orders made on Watford Eats.

The two hope that customers and restaurants move away from bigger apps to Watford Eats on the basis of “giving back to the local economy”.

It is part of Local Eats, a business model that started in 2018 to help people launch their own takeaway food ordering franchise.

After the launch on Wednesday, an app can be downloaded from the iOS App Store or Google Play. For more information visit: https://www.watfordeats.co.uk/