Cuddalore Restaurants Drop Swiggy, Zomato for Local Platform Zaaroz

Speedy Summary

• The Cuddalore District Hotel Owners Association has officially ended partnerships with Swiggy and Zomato, switching to the Chidambaram-based food delivery platform, Zaaroz.
• Restaurants in Cuddalore stopped receiving orders via Swiggy and Zomato on September 1, 2025. Most eateries opted for Zaaroz due to its monthly subscription model instead of heavy commission charges.
• This shift follows a similar move by restaurant owners in Namakkal earlier this year to onboard Zaaroz.
• Concerns cited by the association include steep commission fees (20-30%) imposed by aggregators like Swiggy and Zomato, leading to losses or business closures for restaurants.
• With Zaaroz,small eateries pay ₹1,500/month plus GST; larger restaurants pay ₹3,000/month plus GST.
• Zaaroz currently operates in over 50 tier 2/3 cities across Tamil Nadu, has onboarded ~5,000 vendors serving ~8 lakh customers. Expansion plans include Theni and Perundurai soon.
• Founder Ram Prasath stated that the company uses electric bikes for delivery executives and compensates petrol expenses at ₹2/km until full rollout of e-bikes.

indian Opinion Analysis

The decision by the Cuddalore District Hotel Owners Association to disassociate from industry giants like Swiggy and Zomato highlights growing dissatisfaction among smaller businesses regarding high commission fees charged by these platforms. The shift toward a homegrown alternative like Zaaroz reflects an increasing preference for localized solutions aimed at reducing overhead costs while promoting enduring practices such as electric bike usage.

For India’s emerging food delivery landscape, this change signals key trends: first, platform sustainability is becoming critical; second, localized ecosystems may play an essential role in supporting smaller establishments economically while addressing concerns about exorbitant commissions or opaque billing practices common with bigger players.platforms such as Zaaroz can perhaps offer models tailored toward regional needs without sacrificing profitability or openness-both crucial factors for India’s small businesses.However useful this disruption may seem initially for restaurant owners in Tamil Nadu’s smaller towns meanwhile relies on whether it retains both cost-efficiency aligns overtime within broader feasibility scaling up operations diverse network ecosystems connectivity competitive edge friction customer-outsourcing dependency elsewhere.

Read more: The Hindu