In a fascinating collection of essays in Irish Food History, published by the Royal Irish Academy in 2024, Dr John Mulcahy describes how the 19th-century Irish became global pioneers in food delivery.
From the late-1800s to after the second World War, the Irish Post Office managed food parcels between Ireland and its diaspora worldwide, particularly in Britain and North America. An 1880s notice from the Post Office advised how eggs and live animals (such as hens), fruit and perishable items (such as cream, game, fish and butter) should be appropriately packed.
Lobsters and entire turkeys, salmon and buttermilk, blackberries and tea, rabbits and geese, and myriad edibles maintained family ties while providing a substantial revenue source in parcel traffic for the Post Office, railway and shipping companies.
Today most postal services worldwide prohibit transport of perishable food, unsurprisingly because unpredictable timelines cannot ensure hygiene and biosecurity over extended routes. Certain supermarket chains offer home-delivery grocery services over short distances. Likewise, various courier companies offer delivery of meals ordered from local outlets.
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But, although convenient, grocery vans and meal dispatch riders can be delayed by traffic. Couriered meals may lose quality as orders are typically batched for delivery to enable a single rider to service several addresses in a single run.
In 2018, Bobby Healy founded Manna, a drone-based meal delivery start-up in Dublin. If special-purpose all-weather drones could be safely built, they could efficiently deliver food orders, especially in the suburbs.
Rural distances are a problem and urban centres are challenging because of few safe landing areas and the risks in attempting drop-offs to balconies. Suburban gardens are ideal, and drones can overcome the difficulties that delivery drivers and riders face navigating suburban traffic. Housing clusters are frequently relatively close to suburban shopping centres with restaurants and food preparation kitchens.
The European Commission introduced rules for the operation of unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) at the end of 2020. The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) was one of the first member state regulators to launch a drone licensing scheme. An “LUC” licence – light UAS certificate – allows drone operations across all member states.
Manna – in which I have small indirect investment – became the first LUC holder in Ireland after detailed scrutiny by the IAA of its safety procedures, including supervised trials. As a result, and within specific limits, Manna does not require prior approval of the flight plans of its drones by the IAA and Irish air traffic control even in the controlled air space over Dublin.
Manna’s quadcopters have eight motors, of which at least four are needed for flight. Both the flight computers and batteries also have redundancy for safety and there is an emergency parachute.
Apart from variable weather conditions, the drones must also manage wind gusts from nearby buildings. Manna has reported 97.5 per cent availability over a full year of Irish weather. Healy has an ambition to scale from a total of 250,000 flights so far, to between two and three million deliveries this year.
Although some local businesses have been supportive, many residents have objected to Manna’s operations, complaining of privacy intrusion and noise. Manna amended its propulsion systems last October to reduce noise and asserts that the number of complaints has since fallen.
After almost six years of commercial operation, how well is Manna positioned for the global market?
Premium coffee delivery has been a novelty showcase for Manna, and yet the general trend across Dublin is now towards specialist and temperature-sensitive beverages. Individual drone deliveries are limited to a couple of kilograms – a sufficient meal for a small family but not for a pizza party. Small household groceries and even medical supplies can be carried by drone, but are limited by the weight restriction and a flight radius of three kilometres.
Meanwhile Wing, a Palo Alto-based rival to Manna and a subsidiary of Google’s parent, Alphabet, announced last month it is scaling to 150 Walmart stores across the United States this year, and to 270 during 2027.
[ How drones can help transform the economics of Ireland’s parcel-delivery networkOpens in new window ]
Wing drones have a similar capacity to Manna but operate up to about a 10 kilometre radius. Wing does not yet have a focus on meal orders, but instead on last-minute groceries and pharmacy supplies.
Amazon has trialled drone deliveries in both Texas and California. And Amazon Prime has just launched a test delivery service in Darlington in Britain, seeking wider regulatory approval. Like Manna and Wing, the payloads are relatively small. Mini household and office supplies, tech accessories and beauty products are expected to be the chief payloads.
While Manna has considerable operational experience compared with its competitors to date, its technology does not appear to have any significant intellectual property advantage at this time.
The big win would be to rapidly scale operations globally and so become a dominant operator worldwide. Although Ireland may have been a global pioneer in food delivery in the past, Wing’s momentum with Walmart and Amazon Prime’s vast ecommerce network are both considerable challenges if Manna is to match this historical precedent.
