Yahoo Finance Compare The Market throws restaurant sector a bone with cut-price meals incentive
Comparison giant Compare The Market is set to plough millions of pounds into a dining out scheme entitling its customers to cut-price meals at thousands of restaurants.
The website, whose meerkat mascot Aleksandr Orlov is popular in the country’s collective consciousness, said its deal with Tastecard would mean anyone buying a product or switching provider would be entitled to 2-for-1 on food for 12 months.
A person with knowledge of the Meerkat Meals scheme, which is due to launch in July, said customers would be able to use their discount cards on Sundays to Thursdays for a whole year, after which they could switch or buy another product and receive the perk again.
Compare The Market, which sells financial products such as home and pet insurance, already runs one incentive scheme called Meerkat Movies. This scheme, which has been running for three years, entitles its customers to 2-for-1 cinema tickets every Tuesday or Wednesday and has handed out a total of 10m cinema tickets.
People buying products out on Compare The Market once Meerkat Meals has launched will receive both benefits.
The move could provide a small but important helping hand to the casual dining industry, which is struggling to cope with a raft of rising operating costs and a consumer spending squeeze. At present, roughly 4,000 restaurants have signed up to Meerkat Meals but this is expected to grow given Tastecard has deals with 7,000.
One of the chains understood to be part of Meerkat Meals is Prezzo, which in March confirmed up to 500 restaurant workers could lose their jobs as it moved to close 94 of its 300 sites in a bid to keep the company trading.
The chain is not alone in finding the conditions tough, with Jamie’s Italian and burger chain Byron among those entering into so-called company voluntary agreements, forms of administration which allow an entity to keep trading while it shuts sites and agrees rent reductions on others.
The person with knowledge of the scheme thought Meerkat Meals would quickly gain popularity given consumer demand for eating out remains high and that customers could use it five days a week compared with just two for Meerkat Movies.
