As state and local governments began shutting down restaurant dining rooms across the country, establishments were left scrambling to set up takeout and online ordering for their customers.
Hazlnut, a Jacksonville-based company that builds web-based ordering sites and mobile apps for restaurants, said the company’s overall sales increased 20% in March alone.
“The phone has been ringing off the hook,” said Hazlnut co-founder and CEO Dick Sikes. “So it’s been pretty nonstop. It’s a lot of people who didn’t have something in place already.”
Sikes said many smaller restaurants want to offer online ordering like Starbucks or Chipotle, but can’t afford to hire developers to do so. Hazlnut creates an app or website for them and adds the restaurants’ branding and logos.
The inquiries began coming from states where restaurants had been reduced to takeout and delivery only, and now Sikes said he is seeing them from all over.
Hazlnut works with a point-of-sale platform called Clover Connect. Clients who use Clover have been finding Hazlnut through its app store and through word-of-mouth from Clover salespeople.
Sikes and co-founder Steven Edwards started Hazlnut in late 2017 after scrapping an idea to create a universal survey platform for restaurants. It’s a part of PS27 Ventures and works locally with Larry’s Giant Subs.
Hazlnut has five employees and Sikes said they’ve been working overtime to turn around products for customers, since many want to be online as soon as possible. Hazlnut can get a restaurant online in two to three days.
“We’ve definitely been trying to expedite this as much as we can for these businesses,” Sikes said. “And we’ve been told multiple times from multiple different clients that our service has really been saving their business in this time.”
Most of the inquiries Hazlnut received in the past month have been for web-based ordering platforms. The company also develops mobile apps as a premium service.
While Hazlnut has been seeing a significant increase in new clients, it hasn’t been as profitable as it could be. To help struggling restaurants, Sikes said he has been waiving some development fees.
The web-based ordering platform costs $89 a month for Hazlnut clients, plus a $199 activation fee and a $750 development fee. Apps are $109 a month, with a $199 activation fee and $1,500 development fee.
There’s also the concern that some new clients, as well as existing ones, may not stay in business through the end of the pandemic.
“As interesting and as good as the business has been, it’s a double-edged sword,” Sikes said. “Some of our customers may not be able to reopen their restaurants. They may have just taken too much of a loss. I think that’s the dark cloud over all of this.”