Asgdom Abraha, a businessman living in Addis Abeba, always felt there was something missing in the thriving fast-food industry of the city. All of this changed once he began using food delivery services.

A 43-year-old father of two, Asgdom is a customer of Debonairs Pizza and makes use of their delivery services to bring food to his doorstep. He places orders from the eatery at least once a week for members of his family and friends.

"The food delivery service made my life easier in terms of avoiding traffic and saving time and money,” said Asegdom. “It is also useful for people in hospitals and office workers.’’

Debonairs is but one of many companies that gives delivery services. Nonetheless, many of them are entirely dedicated to the delivery of food items and do not double as restaurants. One of these is Asbeza, which was founded by Bereket Tadesse.

A father of two in his early 30s, Bereket was always at a loss to find time to buy groceries. He did not wait for a delivery service to pop up somewhere and make life easier for him. He decided to launch one himself instead.

The company was called Asbeza, and it started giving service in September 2018. Located on Africa Avenue, the company employs just three individuals.

“It is an online grocery delivery service that is exclusively designed for the Addis Abeba market,” he said.

Asbeza started the service with 400,000 Br in capital. It is now accessible through a smartphone application and a website, but it did not immediately take off.

When Bereket had the idea of creating the online shopping business, he assumed that people, especially youngsters, would know more about the technology and use it.

“Initially, I found it difficult to promote the online business before I finally was able to break through after a lot of consistent attempts,” he says. ‘‘Our value is that customers can focus on their other business, feeling confident that they will get quality delivery service from us."

Asbeza offers two kinds of delivery services using a motorbike and a van. The first kind delivers within four hours and charges 106 Br if the goods being delivered are less than 1,000 Br. The second one carries out delivery in 24 hours and costs 96 Br. Last year, the company received 720 orders from various customers.

There are 180 types of grocery items for consumers to choose from, and the delivery is made from Fresh Corner chains. The quality and freshness of the food items is checked by the company before buying and delivering them, according to Bereket. Customers can make payments through CBE Birr and M-Birr.

In the future, the company plans to deliver food from restaurants and work with the likes of Savor Restaurant and Deli Prime once it increases the number of its vans.

Nonetheless, the delivery service provider is not without its challenges, which stem from customers, internet provision and the government.

‘‘Though not usual, some customers switch off their phones after ordering food,” Bereket says. “And as the demand for the service increases, internet speed has remained slow, making it difficult to find the location of orders.”

It is not just Asbeza that succeeded situating itself inside the food industry's value chain. There are also Onkato, Telalaki, Deliver Addis, Kedame Gebeya and 125 Food Catering.