A DUNFERMLINE business says it has helped local firms save a massive £200,000 by encouraging them to ditch national apps for their local one.

Dunfermline Eats was set up by Michael McDade and Bilal Shahid three years ago and the company has now set up an office in Rosyth and expanded further across Fife.

They now plan to continue the delivery app's growth while helping local eateries and retailers expand their offering and ditch larger platforms such as Just Eat.

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"It has now hit three years that we have been operating," he said. "It has grown from 12 to 14 partners when we launched to us now working with over 100 who are getting orders through us every week.

"That covers Dunfermline, Inverkeithing, Rosyth, Kelty, Lochgelly. We found that the further away we went from the actual city of Dunfermline, people were saying have you not got Lochgelly or Cowdenbeath Eats so we launched a second app which we branded Fife Eats.

"We have been operating that for the last year and that operates in Kirkcaldy, Glenrothes, Leven, pretty much the rest of Fife although we haven't got to St Andrews yet."

Michael said they have been delighted that their popularity across West Fife is still growing.

"In Dunfermline especially, we operate with 80 per cent of businesses. If they are on one of the other apps, they are on us. It is consolidating what we have done in Dunfermline and raising awareness.

"For app downloads, we are sitting at over 36,000 so in terms of awareness, we have done pretty well in the last three years.

"We are probably looking at more Fife expansions. I would say possibly to put Fife Eats into St Andrews, expand what we are doing in Glenrothes, Leven and Kirkcaldy.

"It is important for us that the restaurants are working and feedback has been brilliant. They appreciate there is a lot of high level of service.

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"One example is one of our partners accidentally dropped the machine that accepts our orders and by 10am the next day, we were with them replacing it. You just don't get that with the bigger companies. I drove out and replaced it.

"It isn't just the fact that we are cheaper, companies are saving through us as well. We have saved partners a whopping £200,000 in commission in the last year versus what they would have had to have paid Just Eat.

"A lot of the partners are fantastic at passing on savings to the customers, so customers are saving a lot of money and the takeaways are saving money."

After running special savings leading up to Black Friday, Michael said they are next looking to run a 12 days of Christmas promotion which will see selected partners giving away discounts and vouchers between December 13 and 24.

They will also be collecting donations on the app for Dunfermline Foodbank where the company has pledged to match whatever is raised.