App launched for hospitality, retail and leisure market

The brainchild of brothers, Ryan and Mark Fegan from Keady, Armagh, DrinkApp Ltd has developed an intuitive and universal app that allows publicans, restaurant owners and other leisure providers to accept drink orders from patrons without ever having to go near their table or serve them across a crowded bar.

DrinkApp has been developed over the past 18 months; originally a solution to queue management in busy bars, clubs and events across Ireland, now a much-needed piece of technology to futureproof the industry’s existence in the face of Covid19.

Ryan Fegan, founder, said: “The idea for DrinkApp came to me about two years ago on a busy night in the bar Mark owns in Armagh. This small space was rammed, like most bars around Northern Ireland on any given weekend and I began to wonder if there wasn’t an alternative solution to crowded pubs, than to simply reduce numbers which would impact sales or expand, which would be a significant investment and not always possible.

“The idea that a universal app could eliminate the need to queue by allowing orders to be placed without having to leave the table came to me, and DrinkApp was born.”

While the idea for the app came over two years ago, lockdown presented a great opportunity to expand and repurpose the app to have a retail arm, which allows consumers to order a delivery from a nearby off-licence.

James Freeman joined the company from an estate agent background to head up Operations. He commented: “While Covid19 presented a timely opportunity to develop this side to the app, it isn’t limited to life in lockdown. We’ve been seeing a shift in consumer shopping behaviours for years now and web/app based localised ordering is really becoming the norm – and not just for groceries, taxis and takeaways.

“Stringent performance and functionality testing has been done throughout the evolution of the app’s development and expansion with partner outlets in Armagh to start. This has allowed us to sell the DrinkApp as a tried and tested system for both hospitality and retail because we know it works. We are currently in talks with some of the biggest names in hospitality across Ireland with a view to getting this up and running as soon as possible in line with the reopening of the industry at the end of the month.”

Further development work is continuing to enable food ordering as well and will be available on the app at the end of June in time for July 3 openings.

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