5 minutes with Bec Nyst, Uber Eats Australia + New Zealand GM

After close to five years working for Uber, most recently as the director of restaurants ANZ, Bec Nyst has been appointed the General Manager of Australia and New Zealand of Uber Eats.

Nyst has spent much time working with restaurant partners to deliver results for both parties, and her new role will see her hone in on the big picture moving ahead.

The GM will join the Tech, Please! panel at the upcoming Hospitality Leaders Summit in Sydney on 23 May. Get your tickets now to hear more from industry-leading panelists.

Hospitality: What can you tell us about your new role?

Bec Nyst: You could say I’m focused on the macro — the magic of pushing a button and getting your food in under half an hour and the micro — making incremental improvements to the app which make it easier for earners to get the most out of the platform.

For the last five years, I’ve been head of restaurants at Uber Eats in ANZ, which has meant a lot of market research (including eating delicious food), but my new role sees me taking responsibility for the entire Uber Eats ecosystem in ANZ.

While I have watched this business grow and have been amazed by how Australia has embraced Uber Eats, I know there is a lot more work to do and I am looking forward to embracing that challenge.

What initiatives are you most looking forward to spearheading in the coming year?

My focus remains locked where it has been since I returned home to Australia and that’s on the restaurant community that look to Uber Eats to generate demand for their food across a global array of cuisines. 

I am excited by the opportunity our platform holds both for restaurants and other merchants as we expand our delivery range. We are looking forward to adding the same value we have created for restaurants to other merchants and retailers. 

Especially close to my heart is the need to double down on our support for RPs as we help over 30,000 restaurant partners recover from COVID and grow their businesses.  

We want restaurants to succeed online and with their brick-and-mortar businesses and I absolutely believe they will. We’ve made changes to offer a range of ways for restaurants to partner with us. Crucially, we can help capture the increased demand for restaurant takeaway, but we believe nobody knows how to make their on-premise offering tick more than the people manning the pass.

What delivery trends are you expecting to come to the fore?

I anticipate restaurants are going to continue to be really savvy with how they use data to inform their menu creation to how they curate their online menus and how they appeal to customers to drive loyalty.

I know on the Uber side, membership will be a considerable trend especially as we look to see an everyday use case on Uber Eats.

One of my first moves was lowering the price of Uber Pass to less than $10 a month. By discounting the membership, more people are able to discover the evergreen Pass benefits including removing a potential barrier to ordering (with $0 delivery fees) from local restaurants.

We will continue to use Uber Pass to build the most loyal community of eaters which we believe will benefit restaurants as we fund the removal of delivery fees from local restaurants when someone is spending more than $20

What are you most looking forward to discussing at the Hospitality Leaders Summit?

I’m most looking forward to listening; it’s fantastic to have forums like this where different industry participants can come together to discuss ideas and oxygenate key issues.

We’ve been supporting the concept of an Enterprise Hub over the last few months where restaurant owners from across the country get together to share tips on how they’re tackling challenges facing the industry. With a lot of chatter directed to the pandemic recovery at the moment, it’s an exciting time to feel the energy and optimism.

I’m looking forward to sharing the stage with Butter’s Julian Cincotta; his restaurant is on Uber Eats and he has a phenomenal approach to cuisine and branding.