Dear Restaurant Owners,
The dine-in industry has taken a severe economic hit due to pandemic impacting millions of lives. We are incredibly proud and thankful for your relentless efforts and commitment to get the industry back on foot, which offers livelihood to millions of Pakistanis. In this open letter today, we at Careem would like to provide an online food aggregator service to support restaurants during these challenging times.
Since Careem launched its operations in Pakistan in 2016, our purpose has always been to build an app that remains a constant source of positive impact and prosperity for the people in Pakistan by simplifying lives, creating job opportunities, and enabling our partners to grow.
We launched our all-new Super App in June 2020, thereby adding numerous other services to our existing ride-hailing service, including Food delivery. Our food service is already established in Karachi and is planned to be launched in Lahore in October 2020, followed by Islamabad. We are new entrants in the Food market. However, the way we design our operations is not only in the best interest of Careem, but also safeguarding the interest of our restaurant partners is a key priority.
We have done some research to understand the critical challenges faced by restaurants. Today, to address those challenges, we would like to make some important announcements for the restaurant industry in Pakistan. To sum it up, we would like to put forward a proposal that we believe would be fair and in the best interest of Careem and our restaurant partners.
● Aggregator Commission: We understand the current thin profits made by the restaurants. We will set a commission with the mutual consent of restaurants. The commissions will
range between 15% to 20% with an annual commitment for the rest of the year. This will also include the delivery by Careem and will cover for our platform costs. Any proposal to
revisit (reduce / increase) in the future will be value-based and will be mutually discussed with our partners.
● The flexibility of Self Delivery: All the restaurants registered on our application will have the
liberty to do deliveries themselves if they choose to do so. We want to simplify and
improve their lives, not be a burden to them. With the self-delivery option, the commission of 15% to 20% will be further reduced.
● No Exclusivity: Time and time again, we have emphasized that the opportunity in the region is massive. Pakistan is a market with huge potential, and the existing players in the market have barely scratched the surface. We do not mind sharing with others and do not want to add barriers to the growth of others.
● Caring Support and enabling growth for our partners: Humility is in our DNA. We at
Careem would go the extra mile to provide the best in class support. Our teams will work in
collaboration with our restaurant partners to make their business grow.
● Special package for APRA members: We would also like to announce a special package
for APRA member restaurants. Members will be eligible to have further relaxed
commercial and operational terms. For details, please reach out to us directly.
At Careem, we understand the challenging time restaurants are going through and ensure that the restaurant and food industry in Pakistan grows. We strongly believe that Pakistan’s food industry should get its due credit and identity it deserves. We will stand with restaurants during this challenging time and, in return, would expect their willingness to grow together.
If you would have the same belief as us and want to grow your business with us, please do not hesitate to contact our team via merchants.pak@careem.com.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Zeeshan Baig
CEO/Country General Manager
Careem Pakistan
