Jon Sewell, the owner of D.P. Dough and founder of CHOMP, outlined his plans for extending the food-delivery business model at the annual State of Downtown Iowa City meeting on the evening of June 13.

Sewell started CHOMP, an independent food-delivery service, which used a local model to capture the market. Sewell said when GrubHub purchased the Iowa City division of OrderUp, he saw an opportunity for another food-delivery service.

By partnering with 20 local restaurants and receiving outstanding support from the community, he said, Sewell was able to grow his idea into a company that partnered with more than 125 area restaurants and averaged 350 deliveries a day in under a year.

“I turned a for-profit model into a public utility,” Sewell said, highlighting the importance of local relationships in the community.

Now, Sewell wants to take his business another step. With the basic business-to-consumer delivery model in place at CHOMP, he feels he can expand to the retail sector. He focused on three areas that the company hopes to test: grocery-store delivery for such local establishments as John’s and New Pioneer Co-Op, business-to-business delivery for such items as office supplies, and an on-call resident delivery service for the new Rise apartment building.

“We are trying to build on this concept of a collaborative partnership among retail owners,” Sewell said, and he invited local business owners to contact to him.

Another service that Sewell introduced was delivery for the upcoming Downtown Block Party. CHOMP could deliver products bought at local businesses to customers’ homes so that they do not have to carry them around throughout the night.

​— Allison Meyer