How an entrepreneur from a Harborough village is helping restaurants, pubs, shops and businesses open up safely amid the pandemic

An entrepreneur from a village in the Harborough district has found a way to help independent restaurants, pubs, shops and businesses around the country open up safely amid the current pandemic.

Eugene Blaine, from Shearsby, has developed the Rhino Online Social Distancing App which allows small businesses to offer an online take away ordering facility.

Customers can view online food menus or product listings, place their orders and then pay remotely.

Uniquely, the app provides for collection slots so customers can collect their purchases without having to come into contact with other customers.

Eugene helped his local pub, The Chandlers Arms, set up its takeaway business when all hospitality services were forced to close because of COVID-19.

Eugene said: “Our local pub is such an important part of our community in Shearsby and like all the villagers, I wanted to find a way to support landlords Stella and Martin Woolley to trade and for our village to continue to enjoy their amazing food, while also adhering to the strict social distancing measures that have been put in place.

“The app manages the flow of people to the pub which means there are never any queues of people waiting to order or pay for their meals.

"I feel really passionate about shopping local and supporting local businesses and I am delighted that our app can help those businesses to adapt and survive these strange times.”

The app has proved to be very effective and is now used by pubs and restaurants in Ireland, Bristol, Gloucester, and London that have sought to adopt this approach.

Stella, who has run the pub since 2016, said: “We’re hugely grateful to Eugene for developing this fantastic app. It’s allowed us to continue trading, safely, which for us was absolutely vital.

“The Rhino Online Social Distancing App is so easy to use, which is a huge bonus for us and our customers as none of us are hugely into technology.

""Not only that, but it can be set up in 24 hours or less, which means a business can be back up and running within days."

Now the app model has been proven to successfully work within the takeaway industry, Eugene and his team are now focussing on how the technology can be applied to other services.

Contact Eugene Blaine via the email address [email protected]. The app can be downloaded via the Play Store for Android users and the Apple App Store for iOS.