Deliveroo and McDonald’s UAE complete the UAE’s first ever hot air balloon delivery to a Dubai desert safari

Press release

Published April 30th, 2019 - 08:23 GMT

During the event

Highlights

This weekend, food delivery reached new heights when Deliveroo completed its most unusual order request to date.

The food delivery company teamed up with McDonald’s UAE to deliver an order for 8 people, in a desert safari camp area - the most remote address a Deliveroo customer has ever requested food be delivered to.

This is the latest in Deliveroo’s series of extreme deliveries, through which the riders working with the food delivery company have traded in their bikes for more niche modes of transport, to reach customers in harder to reach areas. Last month, a group of customers on a yacht had their order delivered by a rider on a jet ski.

Anis Harb, General Manager, Deliveroo GCC comments: “We believe that our customers should be able to enjoy their favourite food whenever they are and wherever they are, so when we heard that a group of McDonald’s-loving customers were going to the desert, we took things to the next level in order to get them their favourite food.”

In case you were wondering - the customers ordered a mixture of McArabia Chicken and Big Macs.

Background Information

Deliveroo

When Deliveroo's founder and CEO Will Shu moved to London in 2013 he discovered a city full of great restaurants, but he was amazed that so few of them delivered food. He made it his personal mission to bring the best local restaurants direct to people’s doors.

By offering fast and reliable delivery which the customer can track on their phone, Deliveroo has seen revenue growth of over 650% year on year. Restaurants who partner with us see their revenue increase by up to 30%, creating thousands of jobs in the restaurant sector.

Company Profile

McDonald’s

In 1917, 15-year-old Ray Kroc lied about his age to join the Red Cross as an ambulance driver, but the war ended before he completed his training. He then worked as a piano player, a paper cup salesman and a Multimixer salesman.

In 1954, he visited a restaurant in San Bernardino, California that had purchased several Multimixers. There he found a small but successful restaurant run by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, and was stunned by the effectiveness of their operation. They produced a limited menu, concentrating on just a few items – burgers, fries and beverages – which allowed them to focus on quality and quick service.

They were looking for a new franchising agent and Kroc saw an opportunity. In 1955, he founded McDonald’s System, Inc., a predecessor of the McDonald’s Corporation, and six years later bought the exclusive rights to the McDonald’s name and operating system. By 1958, McDonald’s had sold its 100 millionth hamburger