Foodhub is an online takeaway delivery portal founded in 2017 by school friends Ardian Mula and Mohammed Shakil. By combining their individual expertise in technology and fast food they created a unique food ordering platform, offering customers access to cheaper takeaways.
Foodhub is disrupting the wider industry by operating a subscription model rather than a traditionally commission-based model preferred by rivals. Our subscription model enables restaurants to remain profitable whilst providing better value by offering discounts to their customers as a result of not having to pay commission on every order.
Over the last three years, we have emerged from the Midlands and now boast a network of 20,000 takeaway and restaurant partners in the UK. We believe this now makes us the third largest food aggregator platform by restaurant partner in the UK. Demand is growing everyday, the amount of orders placed through the site doubled during the first lockdown back in spring 2020.
Recently we鈥檝e expanded into international territories including Australia, New Zealand and the USA.
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What is the most challenging part of your role?
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FoodHub is in a hypergrowth phase, trebling turnover and client numbers year on year. This growth isn鈥檛 limited to the UK; we are expanding overseas having recently acquired Eat Appy in Australia, as well as entering into the market in the USA, Guatemala and Mexico.
The biggest challenge I face as CFO is managing this growth across multiple geographies. Different countries and jurisdictions require different corporate structures, taxes and statutory reporting. Reporting whilst growing at such a pace is challenging.
Every department requires near real-time financial reporting and cost monitoring, as expanding into different jurisdictions involves a significant investment 鈥� and keeping our growth at a steady pace whilst keeping returns high is a delicate balance. Managing all this is very challenging yet rewarding and enjoyable 鈥� it鈥檚 been a pleasure seeing Foodhub grow significantly in recent months.
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What would your advice for aspiring CFOs be?
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Your relationship with the CEO is critical. A good CFO will understand the CEO鈥檚 vision. Creating synergy and being able to bounce ideas and strategies off of each other is important. It鈥檚 not always just about cutting costs, it鈥檚 about investment as well and value creation. Don鈥檛 just be a finance guy, understand other departments also and how finance interacts with them. Too many finance people just focus on their roles. You need an understanding of the impact your role/department has on others
Build strong relationships outside of your department. Technical skills alone are not sufficient. People and communication skills are key at this level. Be proactive, not reactive, avoid knee-jerk reactions, be tactful, always step back, think and then formulate. Implement a well thought out strategy. Build a good team around you.
If you set a deadline, you have to deliver on it. It will help build your reputation and credibility. In FoodHub I always deliver on my deadlines and promises, I never falter, it鈥檚 something I am very particular about, others perception of you is key.
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What can we expect from Foodhub in the future?
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We are disruptors in the market with our unique no-commission model and we plan to continue rolling this out with ever-more ambitious growth plans. We are currently working on some large acquisitions which would mean we double our size overnight. At the moment we are in quite an advanced stage of raising substantial funding to aid our hypergrowth!
