Saudi PIF’s Noon.com launches into competitive food delivery sector

Saudi PIF’s Noon.com launches into competitive food delivery sector

Speaking in a webinar, founder Alabbar promised to give the food industry a fair structure to operate in, something that he said other service providers ignored. He added that the existing competition charge high commissions that exert a toll on food and beverage operators' already tight finances.Noon Food announced it that will only charge outlets 15 percent of the total order value, including delivery, and two percent on payment, totaling 17 percent commission on each order.Alabbar said restaurants were being "held to ransom“ by rival aggregators during the pandemic, adding that many operators had been charging about 30 to 35 percent commission for delivery services."We will not allow anyone to hold you to ransom, we will fight on your behalf,“ he said.Noon also offered restaurants an opportunity to reduce commission to 12 percent for the first six months if they drop menu prices by 20 percent during the same period.The platform plans to start on-boarding restaurants immediately, with a full rollout of services due to start in March in the UAE and Saudi Arabia later in the year.Noon already operates a large e-commerce marketplace, and Alabbar said he plans to utilize the company's existing fleet of vans to provide the