Present in 25% of Rio Grande do Sul, iFood has 73% of small and medium-sized restaurants gauchos registered on your platform and 5.9 thousand couriers. This good performance encouraged the platform to expand its operations in the region. The plans, according to the company’s vice president of restaurants, Arnaldo Bertolaccini, include bringing more establishments to the application, in addition to offering constant improvements to the tool to provide a positive experience for all involved.
Jornal do Comércio – What are the iFood expansion plans for the South Region and for Rio Grande do Sul in particular?
Jornal do Comércio – Is this project based on studies? What were the most significant conclusions about RS?
Bertolaccini – In 2020 and 2021, with the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the delivery market showed strong growth. As the social distance measures were reduced, we continued to see the expansion of our business due to the increase in the number of restaurants that migrated to the delivery service, reinforcing a new consumption habit. People have been looking for the comfort, practicality and security of placing their orders without leaving home.
Jornal do Comércio – What are the goals outlined for the State?
Bertolaccini – iFood’s priority is to consolidate its positioning as an accessible and complete partner for any restaurant profile with delivery. This means that we are going to reinforce a lot the additional services that add to the day-to-day operation, such as the partnership with Anota lá, the logistical services and marketing tools that iFood makes available. In addition, iFood has strengthened the Continuous Improvement Agenda, which is a process of bringing partner restaurants closer together and evolving operational tools.
The delivery market has been following the change in culture and consumption habits that society is going through. The company has channels to help partners who want to start delivering or increase in-app sales.
Jornal do Comércio – Regarding market share, what does RS represent and what are the goals set for the coming years?
Bertolaccini – iFood is present in 123 cities in Rio Grande do Sul, which represents 25% of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Our goal is to offer the best service to the entire ecosystem present in these cities – couriers, restaurants and consumers. For this, we invest in technology to keep the application up to date and we invest in education, both for the restaurant owner and for delivery people, who are important partners in the delivery ecosystem. For couriers, our goal is to increasingly provide better working conditions and train them for a better future, based on courses and training that are made available on our platform. As a curiosity, of the 200,000 couriers registered with iFood throughout Brazil, 5,900 are in Rio Grande do Sul.
Jornal do Comércio – Are there any plans to set up a physical headquarters in the South region?
Bertolaccini – Although headquartered in São Paulo, iFood is a technology company with employees from all over Brazil, and we are proud of that. With the pandemic, the opportunity to connect with talents that are in different parts of our country has expanded, and in Rio Grande do Sul, for example, we have employees based in the metropolitan region and inland. We do not work with a specific number of goals, but our projection is to expand remote work opportunities.