Deliveroo's £7.99 a month subscription service is now available across the UK

Will william Shu Deliveroo Editions

The Deliveroo Plus service allows people to get unlimited free delivery.
People are being invited to trial the service for one month for free.
Deliveroo Plus is part of a wider effort from Deliveroo to help it differentiate itself from competitors.

Food delivery service Deliveroo has made its "Deliveroo Plus" subscription service available to customers across the UK, following a trial in six UK cities.

Those that sign up to the service — priced at £7.99 a month — won't have to pay Deliveroo's £2.50 delivery fee each time they place an order.

The Deliveroo Plus trial launched in January in Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Brighton, and York. Deliveroo said that customers involved in the trial saved on average a net £23.60 (total savings minus cost of monthly fee). It previously cost £8.99 per month, or £89 per year.

Deliveroo Plus will now be available in 45 towns and cities across the UK and there are plans to roll the service out more broadly in the coming months, the company said.

Dan Warne, UK & Ireland managing director at Deliveroo, said in a statement: "Deliveroo Plus presents a fantastic way for us to offer better value for money to customers. Our trial showed us that people really do love the service and we’re working on making it even better with tonnes of additional rewards, like money off from their favourite Deliveroo restaurants."

In theory, the subscription service should help Deliveroo to increase customer loyalty in competitive market where there is little to differentiate the top companies.

Deliveroo is facing compeition from Uber and Amazon

Deliveroo uses an army of 30,000 riders around the world to deliver food from restaurants to people's homes and offices. It also has 800 internal staff.

In London, Deliveroo is competing with Uber's UberEats service and Amazon's Amazon Restaurants service, which also allow you to order food via an app to your front door. Facebook also launched its own food delivery service in the US last month.

In a bid to differentiate itself further from its competitors, Deliveroo has also set up a number of outdoor kitchens that restaurants can use if they're struggling to cope with takeaway demand in their own kitchens. Deliveroo Editions launched in April in London and there are now Deliveroo kitchens in four other UK cities, along with hubs in Italy, the Netherlands, Singapore, Australia, Dubai, and Hong Kong.

Some councils have complained that the Deliveroo Editions, typically set up in car parks and on industrial estates, do not comply with planning rules and local residents have reportedly taken issue with the amount of noise that comes from them.

Deliveroo raised an additional $385 million (£293 million) in September to fund its aggressive expansion plans and the company is now valued at over $2 billion (£1.5 billion). The company is not yet profitable but in 2016 its revenue grew 611% to £129 million.

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