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Source: Getty/Tap2Drop

The website is live at tap2drop.com, although orders won’t be taken until next week

A new on-demand takeaway and grocery ordering business taking aim at Just Eat is set to launch in London next week.

Tap2Drop will take orders online and pass them on to retailers to deliver themselves, similarly to Just Eat.

The company is 70% owned by London-based restaurant supplier Marvel Food and its MD is Marvel owner Davood Zareiyan.

Tap2Drop’s website and app are already live, using software under licence from Takeout, a Just Eat rival in Denmark.

The site and app list about 300 signed-up restaurants and five convenience stores. Orders will be taken from next week, according to Tap2Drop project manager Payam Zarbakht.

Although most of the launch partners are restaurants, the longer-term plan was to target independent grocers, who could not afford to get online themselves, said Zarbakht, who was a Just Eat sales executive from 2006 to 2013. “Our main goal is local shops,” he said.

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“It’s going to be in our logo in shop windows: ‘supporting local shops’.

“They are really suffering at the moment because of Amazon and other big companies. A local shop can’t afford to do their own apps and websites.”

Tap2Drop would charge 7% commission on orders compared with Just Eat’s 14%. The new business would also give retailers and restaurants full access to customer data, Zarbakht said. “They just need to log-in to the system and they can see their orders, email addresses and phone numbers.”

He said he expected Tap2Drop to be working with retailers in other cities including Birmingham and Manchester within 12 months, and the long-term ambition was to be nationwide.