MAXOL HAS LAUNCHED a food and grocery delivery service across three stores, with plans for the initiative to come to 60 outlets in total.

The first three stores to provide food delivery are Ardbrae in Bray, Co Wicklow, Longmile Road in Dublin and Newbridge in Co Kildare.

Maxol CEO Brian Donaldson told Newstalk Breakfast that it’s a “first for Ireland” and that it’s something the retailer “spotted over in Copenhagen last summer”.

“We’re really excited by this,” said Donaldson. “This is freshly prepared food within our delis.”

He told Newstalk that while Maxol is “very well-known for quality breakfast and lunch”, the deli business “stalls from 3pm onwards”.

Maxol has extended the opening hours of its delis to 10pm.

“We see this as the key to opening up the night time economy, servicing people who want food, but freshly prepared, high quality straight to their door.”

Maxol will first launch the initiative with Just Eat and will soon partner with Deliveroo and UberEats too.

“We’ll have all three aggregators providing not only fresh, quality, prepared food, but you can also get your essential convenience and groceries delivered in one order,” said Donalson.

He added that there will be a special offer online for the first month of the service, with no delivery charge on burritos and chicken fillet rolls.

Maxol CEO Brian Donaldson Jason Clarke Photography Jason Clarke Photography

Meanwhile, Donaldson said Maxol spent over nine months developing a “high-quality” pizza to tempt people to make orders in the evenings and nights.

He also pointed to Maxol’s La Taqueria and ‘Cheeky Chicken’ offerings as other options which he hopes can drive deliveries into the night.

Donaldson added that he has worked “hand in glove with our retailers” ahead of the move and that new staff have been hired in anticipation of the move.

Elsewhere, Donaldson said Maxol “has to prepare for when fuel becomes a smaller part of our business”.

“Already, convenience is about 40% of our profitability,” said Donaldson.

“One of the objectives we have is, how do we move the dial closer to 50% and beyond?

“We realise that once we get into the next decade, we’ll probably sell less liquid fuel.

“We will certainly sell more kilowatts of energy in terms of EV recharging.

“We’re certainly going to sell a lot more coffee, a lot more food service, a lot more convenience and our business will be very different, and that’s why we have to invest now.”