Glug: a cost effective and safe reservations, orders and payment solution for bars, restaurants and cafés

Glug is an innovative free app that can help customers locate venues, browse menus, order food and drink and pay via their smartphone.

The app can list an operator's venue on the Glug map, showing customers where their nearest Glug-compatible venues are, along with menus and information such as opening times.

Once at the venue, Glug then features digital menus that customers can browse and order from. This feature is not only safer than traditional ordering via menus and servers, it is also more efficient and can help eliminate queuing at the bar.

Further top-up orders can then be placed, helping to drive up order values. Orders are received in the venue via existing infrastructure on smartphones, tablets or computers. Customers can then collect their order from a collection point or have the order delivered to their table.

The Glug platform enables venues to manage their menus and pricing, have full visibility of their reservations and get real-time information on the orders being placed.

Glug is competitively priced with no sign-up fees or subscription costs. With three packages available venues can pick the best solution for their business and customers from FREE digital menus, in-app ordering or in-app ordering with payment. Later versions of Glug will include many more exciting features.

A big team sits behind Glug, including Bongo's Bingo co-founder Joshua Burke alongside business partners Carl Whiteside and Lewis Allbones. They have also welcomed David Gallimore to the team, who has helped to create large-scale marketing-tech platforms for many of the UK's leading hospitality companies, SMEs and independents.

Several high-profile investors are already poised to join the Glug revolution and it heralds a major new opportunity for investment as the country comes out of lockdown. Josh brings his own business acumen to Glug from co-founding Bongo's Bingo with Jonny Lacey and turning it into a global phenomenon. They have sold close to two million tickets in five years and created the leader of the UK's experience economy industry, with shows in 50 different locations.

"We have raised £250,000 of investment already," Josh explains. "Glug will support the hospitality industry as bars, restaurants and pubs across the UK as they reopen.

"We work with many of them through Bongo's Bingo and the wider hospitality circles we are all part of. And with David on board, we have his many years of vital experience in this area, too. Glug is something we all passionately believe in.

We have seen what works and what doesn't, and believe Glug will lead the way forward. It is helping businesses and their customers by linking them together, with the free app's users able to engage in a whole host of innovative functions.

"As an example, each year we waste on average seven days waiting to be served – that's a real frustration point for me personally and professionally! Glug is making waiting around a thing of the past and improving many other parts of this relationship.

"With reduced capacity due to social distancing, venues will want to maximise their revenue and how they engage with customers."

David adds: "I am working with Josh and the team in the capacity of board adviser to help support Glug's growth with my technical and industry expertise and experience. Having previously been involved in bringing very similar technical products to market and scaling them to national level, I am well placed to advise on key consideration, industry dynamics and to help the company build relationships and avoid common pitfalls as it grows."

"It's been difficult having to pause our physical Bongo's Bingo shows," Josh continues, "but we have remained creative with our live streams and there's more exciting news to come there soon.

"Glug is now here during a very difficult time for the UK – and the world, too – and especially the hospitality industry, but we believe it is helping connect people back with the places they loved going to before all of this terrible stuff happened. We are in talks with lots of businesses who are signing up to be a part of Glug."

To find out more, visit Glug here

Instagram: @GlugApp

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