Epicuri is produced by ThinkTouchSee Ltd, a fully digital business with a registered office in Leeds, United Kingdom (UK). However, it operates lean by staying virtual. The firms’ team covers Midlands, Yorks, Cambs, London and also has a presence in Serbia. It has been in business since 2011.
Epicuri is built around the mantra ‘the future of restaurant point of sale (POS) and guest management’. It is an innovative restaurant technology partner for restaurants and is redefining restaurant POS and guest management for the cloud, mobile and social media enabled world.
How? It is the first restaurant management system in the industry to successfully integrate POS with web, mobile, app, and social media to drive and attain restaurant success. Epicuri allows restaurants to serve their customers in person, by phone, on the web, via mobile and app. It keeps the restaurant responsive and guests connected before, during and after their visit. Essentially, Epicuri acts as an innovative portfolio of products that work seamlessly together to give restaurants all the tools they need to achieve their full potential.
The Epicuri app for guests is a win-win scenario, for both the restaurateurs and the customers. For the diners, it is a one-stop solution to stay connected with their favorite restaurants. They can browse menus, book tables/takeaways and even order another round of drinks directly from their own smartphones. Guest self-service is available along with integrated payments. The app is also free to download via ‘play’ or ‘app’ store.
“Epicuri makes technology easy for all restaurants to benefit and we together can raise the baseline across the sector.”
Meanwhile, for the restaurant, there is a powerful restaurant app that is an easy to use mobile POS. Epicuri POS will serve customers at the counter or at their table with kitchen order-slips printed wirelessly or viewed onscreen. It will also help manage menus, reservations, takeaways, cash-up and more – all from one place. Put it all together, Epicuri enables speed, efficiency and higher standards for front-of-house operations.
“In a highly competitive marketplace, we are determined not to be just another ‘one-trick pony’”, says Iksit Gadhia, Founder and CEO of Epicuri. “The hospitality tech industry is full of products with narrow remits. Restaurateurs that want the technology advantage are forced to accept the expense, management, and complexity of having multiple systems. I’ve been there and it’s a huge headache! Epicuri makes technology easy for all restaurants to benefit and we together can raise the baseline across the sector.”
The company also strives to make a positive contribution to the industry. For instance, the Epicuri team discovered that there were many sad incidents where allergens were not adequately managed on the restaurant floor, so they decided to do something about it. They developed a solution whereby guests can share their allergen profile via the ‘guest app’. When guests dine at an Epicuri restaurant, the system will proactively alert the customer and wait staff about any potential allergen conflict based on the items ordered so as to avoid any medical incidents. This service is offered to all customers at no cost.
Largely, Epicuri is changing the dynamics of the restaurant/hospitality industry through its unique offerings. Effective technology has been a commodity for ‘high street’ restaurant chains in the past. Now, Epicuri is breaking down the technology barriers for all types of restaurants, to make the benefits affordable, accessible and reinvigorate the industry. Consequently, their POS system recently won the prestigious ‘Innovation Award’ from Innovate-UK.gov.uk
Iksit Gadhia, Founder & CEO, Epicuri
Epicuri’s success thus far is primarily due to Iksit’s savvy stewardship, which focuses on company values and on their commitment to set customers up for long-term success. “We are a challenger in a highly competitive and aggressive industry where restaurant owners, who typically may not have the technical know-how, are often pressured into buying multiple and disparate systems that become a burden and offer low ROI,” says Iksit. “I value our partner-led approach with customers meaning we will take a measured pace to ensure Epicuri represents value first. While Epicuri may not show growth like its peers, I believe in building a meaningful, sustainable customer base rather than growth at the cost of our integrity.”
He continued, “The sales pace is in contrast to how we run product development. Our greatest asset here is a sense of urgency! Epicuri moves forward at a phenomenal rate in response to customer demand, industry requirements and home grown innovation! Not everything gets through but if it fails, we fail it quickly and move onto trialing the next idea! We are proud that many of our features help our customers open up new channels and revenue streams.”
Although Epicuri has successfully positioned itself as a disruptor in the industry the firm is never short of challenges. “There is no name for our kind of end-to-end platform. We found it a challenge to ‘fit in’ so that restaurants can categorize us ready to have a conversation. So, we started to identify ourselves as simply ‘Restaurant POS’ rather than explain our integrated nature from the outset. We have found the penny drops around 2-3 weeks after our customers go-live with Epicuri and they finally grasp just how powerful our solution is in driving up restaurant profitability,” Iksit pauses to add, “conveying the message of ‘who we are, what we do and how we aid you’ effectively during the earlier parts of the sales process is a challenge we continue to face today!”
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Even so, Iksit has no plans of slowing down. After developing a turnkey solution for restaurants to help them become truly multi-channel, the company now has designs in place to disrupt the restaurant loyalty market in a similar vein. “10th meal free, 2 for 1… Happy Hour… 30% off … all these all outdated and transparent forms of loyalty schemes, they have limited (or sometimes negative!) benefit for the restaurant,” explains Iksit. “They attempt to BUY customer loyalty with an offer rather than generate a true following of fans of the restaurant who are then subsequently rewarded for their loyalty.” Epicuri loyalty instead would give restaurants an organized and structured platform to promote and encourage the right behaviors from their digital savvy, mobile-ready and social media connected customer base by generating a true following for the restaurant.
Looking to the future, the company plans to become the go-to technology partner to all restaurants whether new, up and coming or already an institution. The goal is to normalize the use of cloud, mobile and social media and lead the way to help all restaurants serve the modern diner. “Adoption of technology in the hospitality sector is among the lowest across industries,” says Iksit. “There is so much yet to achieve.” They are just getting started.
For more information, visit www.epicuri.co.uk
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