Alcohol delivery app DropOff launched by Trinity graduates

The service is available from 5-10pm today for app users in south Dublin with plans to expand across the country.

DropOff, a company which allows customers to order from off-licences to their doors from an app, launched a daily service covering south Dublin today.

Following a soft-launch last weekend, app users living in south Dublin can order from participating off-licenses between 5-10pm for a flat fee of €5. Users must enter the last four digits of their passport or Garda AgeCard number to register.

The service is planned to expand across Dublin and the country over the summer.

Fiachra Fallon Verbruggen, CEO of DropOff, and Lorcan Cullen, CFO, met in Trinity and were both active in College societies.

Speaking to Trinity News, Verbruggen, who was Vice-President of the Phil, noted how, “a society, especially one the size of the Phil, is a lot like a company.” His experience securing sponsorship for the society came in use when pitching to investors. “Just having had enough experience to know that I could do it.”

DropOff operates out of the Guinness Enterprise Centre in the Liberties, a non-profit environment for emergent businesses. “It’s amazing to just be around other people who are having similar experiences or had them in the past,” Verbrugen said.

While app-based delivery services have become common, the delivery of alcohol from off-licences has not. “When JustEat launched they had to get people normalised into the idea of ordering from an app but the idea of having food delivered was already there. We’ve to do the two at once,” Verbrugen told Trinity News. 

With supermarkets increasing their share of the online market, DropOff will better equip independent off-licenses to compete with them. Verbruggen emphasised the importance of independent stores in a press statement, highlighting “the Walmart-isation of Irish towns where everyone just goes to supermarkets for everything instead of to their neighbourhood specialists”.