Gulp! The secret economics of food delivery

By Jonathan Nunn

Ertugrul Elmas reckoned that a career designing fabrics would be a safe bet. Trends come and go but people always need trousers. He failed to appreciate that clothes could be made anywhere. When his employer moved its factories from Turkey to China in 2000, Elmas emigrated to London and found work in the textile industry. For five years, he earned a good living overseeing a cloth manufacturer in Romania. But after the country joined the European Union in 2007, many workers emigrated and the garment industry collapsed. Elmas decided to enter the restaurant business instead. After all, people would always need a good place to eat.

He opened Olives and Meze in 2014. Like Elmas, whose friends call him Eddie, the restaurant straddles two worlds, refashioning the Turkish grill for the bourgeoisie of Clapham, an upmarket suburb in south London. It was a success. With its sleek, steel-grey bar and open terrace, it quickly became the kind of place where you could take a date. Elmas didn’t think of it as somewhere that did takeaway – he assumed that was just for pizza, curry and chow mein. But soon he noticed that most restaurants in the area were on one of three delivery apps: Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat.