Pizza franchise and EPOS business mark unique 25 year partnership
Takeaway franchise Herbies Pizza is marking 25 years since it began a unique partnership with restaurant tech platform Andromeda.
Headquartered in Slough, Herbies was founded in 1985 and now has 24 takeaway sites across the South East of England, turning over £8million annually.
Andromeda was one of the first EPOS platforms to come into existence and in the mid-nineties Herbies became their first client, setting it apart from other restaurant chains who still relied on pen and paper.
Avi Brar, director of Herbies Pizza, explains how the two companies have worked together over the years to build expertise and grow.
“My relatives who ran the business at the time met the CEO of Andromeda, Ben, socially and he told them about the platform. We decided to trial the technology in our first restaurants in Sandhurst, Bracknell and Woking, to see if it made a difference. Over the years Ben worked with us to pinpoint the issues experienced in the restaurants that could be solved by an EPOS platform. In the early days he’d physically come into the restaurants to witness the needs and challenges first hand then he adapted the platform to make it work more effectively for us.
“Back then, no one knew what EPOS was capable of, as it was so new. But looking back, we can see it’s helped us grow and develop exponentially over the years. Having Andromeda integrated was a brilliant USP, so we used it as a sales tool to encourage people to set up Herbies Pizza franchises.
“Day to day, the information we’re able to glean from the data is invaluable. The customer data enables us to create more personal experiences for people as well as remarket effectively to them. By demonstrating when our busiest times are, Andromeda enables us to plan when we need to have extra staff and drivers working to meet demand, as well as when to prepare food to make sure it’s as fresh as possible. Other useful functions include monitoring stock levels as well as using weekly forecasts to help manage staff and payroll. All of this saves on managerial time and enables us to focus on building our customer base.
“In a nutshell, Andromeda takes every single aspect of opening a restaurant and makes it easier, as well as more efficient for those running the operation. We still meet with the Andromeda team regularly and get constant updates on how the platform is developing. They’re always reaching further to make things even better for their clients.”
Ben Portsmouth, Co-Founder & CEO of Andromeda, commented: “Our partnership with Herbies over the years has been completely unique. We’ve spent 25 years working with the chain to see first hand what challenges takeaways and restaurants face and have used this data and knowledge to build the platform we have today. We’re very proud of this partnership and are thrilled to see how much Herbies has grown partly as a result of integrating our platform.”
