McDonald's launches delivery trial amid industry pressure

McDonald's has launched a trial of home delivery as it comes under increasing pressure from other food delivery services.

The fast food chain is offering McDelivery through UberEats, with orders available from 22 locations across London and another 10 restaurants in Leeds and Nottingham.

Customers will be able to order food through the UberEats app before Uber couriers deliver it to their door.

McDelivery will be available between 7am and 2am for customers living within 1.5 miles of the restaurants involved in the trial.

Mathieu Proust, general manager of UberEats, said: "Our technology means people can get the food they want with the speed and reliability they've come to expect from Uber."

The launch comes as McDonald's finds itself under increasing pressure from other food delivery services, such as Deliveroo and Just Eat (Frankfurt: A1100K - news) .

KFC, pairing with Just Eat, launched its own home delivery service across 30 restaurants in Greater London earlier this year.

Home deliveries of ready-to-eat food grew 10 times faster than dining out last year, according to NPD Group figures.

The delivery sector saw 599 million visits in Britain last year - up almost 10% - while restaurant visits increased by 1%.

UK boss of McDonald's Paul Pomroy told Sky News in April : "The market's growing - I've been looking at that market for 18 months now - customers are starting to ask us when McDonald's are doing delivery.

"We serve 3.7 million people per day so you can't go from one store to 1,300 quickly without causing disruption.

"We looked at other brands that already do delivery. We're not the first to deliver. But we want to be a follower that does it in the right way.

"So if you order a Big Mac meal at home, then you want to feel that you've been well treated in terms of the price and the way it's been delivered."