GoFood PNG is at the forefront of online food delivery services in Papua New Guinea. Kevin McQuillan speaks with co-founders Samson Korawali and Eugene Anang.

GoFood PNG’s CEO Eugene Anang with a staff member. Credit: GoFood PNG

GoFood PNG’s original concept was simple: provide a food delivery service for residents of Port Moresby.

The CEO and co-founder is Eugene Anang, who identified an opportunity to supply people who want a convenient way to get food from restaurants in Port Moresby.

‘Either they didn’t have a car, didn’t want to go out again after coming home from a long day of work, or they didn’t want to go out at night for security reasons’.

Anang approached Samson Korawali to build the technology that would allow customers to browse different restaurant menus and place their orders online. The orders would then be delivered to their door.

The two entrepreneurs had to raise the capital to buy cars and motorbikes, create an online local ordering system for Port Moresby suburbs only, and make sure the deliveries were made.

Korawali says they had to be creative. They wanted to avoid borrowing from banks—notoriously difficult for SMEs in PNG.

‘Customers are middle-to upper class Papua New Guineans and expats who work long hours and are looking for a service that can cater for their food needs.’

‘We are both entrepreneurs and own multiple small businesses, so we leveraged profits from our other businesses to pump capital into this new opportunity.

‘We have a long way to go to becoming the best and most reliable delivery service in Port Moresby, which is our aim as a company.

‘But for now, we are doing our best to be convenient and reliable with our delivery service, payments and our online technology.’

Timelier delivery service

Fast and reliable food delivery. Credit: Samson Korawali

Twenty restaurants have signed up for the service and earlier this year, the CPL chain, Stop & Shop and Meat Haus, joined to provide grocery home deliveries and catering deliveries respectively.

Korawali says the online technology is ‘working fine’ and the focus is now on improving in order to create a timelier delivery service.

Go Food has six staff, three cars and two motorbikes. Staff currently take the orders by phone or online and then the order is sent to the respective restaurants.

They then go to the restaurants, pick up the food and take it to the homes of the customers. But the strategy is about to change.

‘We are in the process of improving our technology so that all orders are done online without the phone calls,’ says Korawali.

‘There will be no texting, and invoices are automated and sent to the restaurant so that everything is done online.

‘We want GoFood PNG to be the leader in this field, so we are also developing a mobile app.

‘That is quite different to having a website. We want to get it right in Port Moresby first and have our strategy, structures, processes and management in place so that we can improve our services to our valued customers.

‘Then we can explore other opportunities in Lae and expand to Fiji or Solomon Islands etc. [We can] partner with other companies there to assist with the up-scale.’

Social media

Co-founders Samson Korawali and Eugene Anang. Credit: GoFood PNG

Korawali says customers are middle-to upper class Papua New Guineans and expats who work long hours and are looking for a service that can cater for their food needs.

Marketing is done by social media.

‘Social media will play a key part in our marketing strategy and I am hoping to bring on more people to help us market through digital platforms.’

‘Social media is having a huge impact on the life of Papua New Guineans.

‘People in rural areas are now able to keep in touch easily and stay connected. It will provide a lot of opportunities to build businesses, because it means we don’t need to spend too much money on traditional advertising.’

Such expansion requires capital, however. Preferably it will be raised from an external partner.

‘That extra capital investment would allow us to bring on a few more staff members to really drive the business end of the company and to improve logistics—more cars, more bikes.’