Takeover · journal

Built for food businesses
that want to grow.

Practical guides on reducing commission costs, building direct ordering channels, and keeping more of what you earn.

The Hidden Costs of Third-Party Delivery Apps — and What to Do Instead
Cost ReductionFeatured

The Hidden Costs of Third-Party Delivery Apps — and What to Do Instead

20 April 20268 min readRead article
How to Reduce Just Eat Commission Fees in Ireland
Cost Reduction

How to Reduce Just Eat Commission Fees in Ireland

Just Eat can take up to 33% of every order before you pay rent, ingredients, or staff. Most Irish food businesses accept it as the cost of doing business. It does not have to be.

6 min18 March 2025
Direct Online Ordering vs Just Eat: An Irish Restaurant Guide
Strategy

Direct Online Ordering vs Just Eat: An Irish Restaurant Guide

Just Eat brings customers. Direct ordering keeps the margin. The question is not which one — it is when to prioritise which, and how to make them work together.

7 min10 March 2025
How Irish Food Businesses Keep More Profit Per Order
Profitability

How Irish Food Businesses Keep More Profit Per Order

The average Irish food business keeps 3–9% net margin. Every percentage point recovered has a compounding effect. Here are the levers that actually move the needle.

6 min28 February 2025
Restaurant Cash Flow Problems, and How Faster Payouts Help
Finance

Restaurant Cash Flow Problems, and How Faster Payouts Help

A Galway takeaway does €900 on a Friday night. Staff are paid Tuesday. The supplier expects last week cleared by Thursday. The money from Friday is still two Thursdays away. This is the actual problem, not the commission rate.

7 min22 April 2026
Ghost Kitchens in Ireland: When a Second Brand From One Kitchen Makes Sense
Strategy

Ghost Kitchens in Ireland: When a Second Brand From One Kitchen Makes Sense

The economic case is fixed-cost-per-hour arithmetic: a second brand filling dead hours widens the margin on the first brand in both directions. The operational case is a different conversation entirely, and most single-site operators should not touch it for the first three years.

8 min22 April 2026
How to Set Up Online Ordering in Ireland Without the 30% Commission
Getting Started

How to Set Up Online Ordering in Ireland Without the 30% Commission

A €100-a-month system on €500 of direct orders is 20% before any commission. Commission-only flips the shape: zero orders, zero cost. That is the right structure for a channel you are building from scratch.

7 min22 April 2026
Opening a Second Restaurant Location in Ireland: What Actually Breaks First
Operations

Opening a Second Restaurant Location in Ireland: What Actually Breaks First

Opening the second site is the milestone most Irish operators work towards. It is also the point where the invisible systems holding the first site together begin to fail, one at a time, in a specific order.

8 min22 April 2026
Staff Management for Irish Restaurants: What to Look For (and What to Ignore)
Operations

Staff Management for Irish Restaurants: What to Look For (and What to Ignore)

Three signals tell you the informal system has broken: the owner is the only person who knows who is on Friday, a new hire turns up to a shift that does not exist on the rota, and someone who left three months ago still has the till PIN.

7 min22 April 2026
Branded Ordering for Irish Restaurants: What You Actually Own When the Logo Is Yours
Strategy

Branded Ordering for Irish Restaurants: What You Actually Own When the Logo Is Yours

A customer who orders from you ten times through Just Eat has a relationship with Just Eat, not with you. The food is yours, the brand they remember is the app. Branded ordering inverts that.

7 min22 April 2026
The Best Deliveroo Alternatives for Irish Food Businesses in 2025
Getting Started

The Best Deliveroo Alternatives for Irish Food Businesses in 2025

Deliveroo operates in Ireland at commission rates up to 35%. If you are looking for alternatives — whether to reduce cost, own your customer data, or both — here is an honest look at what is available.

6 min5 November 2024
How to Price an Online Menu in Ireland Without Destroying Your Margin
Profitability

How to Price an Online Menu in Ireland Without Destroying Your Margin

A €12 burger is €12 in cash on the counter, closer to €8 on a rider-delivered Just Eat order, and €11 and change on a direct channel at a single-digit commission. Price each channel for its own economics or give the difference away.

7 min22 April 2026
How to Get More Google Reviews for Your Irish Restaurant
Marketing

How to Get More Google Reviews for Your Irish Restaurant

A restaurant with 200 Google reviews at 4.6 stars beats one with 20 reviews at 4.9 in local search — volume matters as much as rating. Here is how to build yours consistently.

5 min1 March 2025
How to Use Promo Codes to Grow Your Irish Food Business
Marketing

How to Use Promo Codes to Grow Your Irish Food Business

A well-placed promo code does not just discount an order — it changes where and how often a customer orders. Here is how to use them without training customers to only buy on discount.

5 min10 February 2025
The True Cost of Just Eat for Irish Food Businesses
Cost Reduction

The True Cost of Just Eat for Irish Food Businesses

Commission is the number everyone talks about. But the total cost of trading on Just Eat — including opportunity cost and brand erosion — is significantly higher than the headline rate suggests.

6 min20 January 2025
Why Collection-Only Is Often the Most Profitable Online Model in Ireland
Strategy

Why Collection-Only Is Often the Most Profitable Online Model in Ireland

A neighbourhood café, a deli, a single-site takeaway with strong local footfall: for a big chunk of the Irish market, collection-only through a direct channel is the cleanest first move. Delivery is the decision you make later, from a position of strength.

7 min22 April 2026
Building a Loyal Customer Base in Irish Hospitality: What Actually Makes People Come Back
Marketing

Building a Loyal Customer Base in Irish Hospitality: What Actually Makes People Come Back

A loyal customer orders five times a month without checking a discount code. They tell one friend. They forgive a mistake. Nothing on that list comes from a loyalty app. It comes from the kitchen, the counter, and the relationship.

7 min22 April 2026
How Irish Restaurants Are Using Social Media to Drive Direct Orders
Marketing

How Irish Restaurants Are Using Social Media to Drive Direct Orders

Most Irish takeaways point their Instagram bio at Just Eat. Every click from a follower becomes commission on marketing the operator did for free. There is a better way to run it, and a handful of local businesses are already running it.

6 min22 April 2026
Launching a Food Business in Ireland: The Boring Parts That Actually Decide If It Works
Getting Started

Launching a Food Business in Ireland: The Boring Parts That Actually Decide If It Works

Registration and insurance are the posts that dominate the search results. They are the easy part. The commercial setup (payments, ordering, pricing, marketing before you open) is where most new Irish food businesses lose their first six months of margin.

9 min22 April 2026
Menu Design for Online Ordering: What Works in Ireland
Operations

Menu Design for Online Ordering: What Works in Ireland

Most Irish food business menus online are too long, poorly organised, and missing the photography that drives ordering decisions. Here is what actually converts on mobile.

6 min20 September 2024
Scaling an Irish Food Business: The Honest Version of When and How
Strategy

Scaling an Irish Food Business: The Honest Version of When and How

Growth amplifies what is already there. If the operation is tight at one site, the second site makes the first stronger. If it is held together by the owner being present six days a week, the second site breaks both.

8 min22 April 2026
The Visual Identity of Takeover Software — Plain, Monochrome, and On Purpose
Brand

The Visual Identity of Takeover Software — Plain, Monochrome, and On Purpose

Most food-software brands look the same because most food-software brands are made the same way — by committee, by theme, by whatever is trending on product sites this quarter. Takeover Software is not. Here is why it looks the way it does.

7 min22 April 2026