LONDON: BigDish Plc, a food technology company that operates a yield management platform for restaurants, has appointed Tom Sumner as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) commencing 2 December 2019.
Tom has worked in the restaurant discount industry for the past six years. From 2013 to 2016 he was National Partnership Manager, managing a 10 person telesales team at Gourmet Society and Tastecard which are the largest diner membership clubs in the United Kingdom.
These brands are operated by The Dining Club Group and each has over 6,000 restaurant partners.
The Company has used a ‘boots on the ground’ approach to restaurant acquisition through Territory Managers. While there has been some success in certain aspects of the business, achieving scale is the goal both in terms of the consumer experience, but also to ensure that BigDish achieves the critical mass to disrupt and erode existing players.
As has been evident throughout the technology space, once companies achieve critical mass, their strategic value alone can rise by significant multiples. Therefore prompt and significant action has already been taken in the run up to this update to ensure an accelerated rollout of restaurants via management and strategy enhancements.
At 11 November 2019 there are a total of 177 restaurants which are live on the BigDish platform. The primary focus for the next 12 months is restaurant acquisition and accelerating the growth of restaurant numbers. A shift to consumer traction and further product development is then envisaged.
The Company has chosen not to retain 7 of its 9 Territory Managers. The best performing Territory Managers are focused on Birmingham and Brighton and will remain with the Company and progress will be monitored.
Rather than “boots on the ground”, the Company, led by Tom Sumner, will launch a telesales operation in Manchester on 2 December 2019 as its prime strategic initiative for restaurant acquisition. The Company notes that Tastecard, Gourmet Society and TableNow all have proven the effectiveness of telesales within their operations and have all favoured this to a ‘boots on the ground’ approach to restaurant acquisition.
In addition to Tom Sumner, two other persons will join the team who have experience working with Tom in restaurant acquisition and collectively have 12 years industry experience. The objective is to rapidly build up a telesales team of approximately 10 persons.
The cost of the telesales operation will be considerably less than the ‘boots on the ground’ strategy. This will result in very substantial cost savings.
With early stage technology companies it is often difficult to forecast accurately and the Company will be mindful of this with all future public statements. The Company’s business model is a proven one in the restaurant sector, and Bigdish now feels it has made the dramatic changes required in order to achieve its ambitions. Going forward, improvements will continue, as necessary.
The United Kingdom is currently dominated by consumer paid dining membership products. The BigDish Yield Management app is a free consumer product and empowers the restaurants to select the discount options and the availability in order to fill empty tables. We are therefore presenting the marketplace both with a compelling consumer proposition as well as offering more flexibility to restaurants. This ‘win-win’ scenario continues to present an exciting opportunity for BigDish and the Company believes that the new and improved strategy will create value for shareholders.
Tom Sumner, incoming CEO commented: “I am really excited to be joining BigDish on 2 December, especially to add to my track record of restaurant acquisition. It is a great looking App and I am confident that the free consumer model will be a big hit in the United Kingdom. The technology is sector leading and with the launch of the Manchester operation I hope to achieve the same results for BigDish that I have at TableNow, Tastecard and Gourmet Society.”