Olivia PowellCo-founder of Bongo’s Bingo, Joshua Burke, has announced the launch of a new app that will allow attendees to order food and drink in advance at venues.
Glug includes full menus that can be ordered via a mobile, computer or tablet, a move which aims to reduce queues, help maintain social distancing measures, avoid using cards or cash as people can pay through the app, and allow brands to communicate directly with customers.
The trio hope Glug will ‘improve how customers engage with the hospitality industry across the country’ whilst also helping them navigate a post-Covid-19 world.
Glug aims to ‘bring everything into one place with thousands of venues listed’, from small pubs and bakeries to large nightclubs, live music venues and restaurants. Glug has been speaking to owners and operators across the UK, and using their feedback to refine the app.
Glug is a free app created by Burke and his co-founders, Carl Whiteside and Lewis Allbones. It has been in production for the past three years. David Gallimore, who has helped to create large-scale marketing-tech platforms for many of the UK’s leading hospitality companies, SMEs and independents, also assisted with the making of the app.
Burke said: “Glug is something we all passionately believe in. We have seen what kind of works and what doesn’t, and believe Glug will be the definitive way forward. It will help 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 7 days waiting to be served – that’s a real frustration point for me personally and professionally!
“Glug will make waiting around a thing of the past and improve 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.”
Gallimore added: “I will be working with Josh and the team in the capacity of Board Advisor 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 help the company to build relationships and avoid common pitfalls as they grow.”
Burke concluded: “It’s been difficult having to pause our physical Bongo’s Bingo shows, but we have remained creative with our live streams and there’s more exciting news to come there soon. Glug is launching during a very difficult time for the UK – and the world, too – and especially the hospitality industry, but we believe it will 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.”