Kate KimberlinWith the rise in popularity of nationally franchised food delivery apps, it can be difficult for local delivery services to get off the ground. The high barrier to market entry didn’t stop deYampert “Brame” Garner and his stepfather Kent Breckenridge from successfully launching Fetcht, the local delivery service.
Since 2018, Breckenridge said that being local has benefited businesses financially in times of need — such as the COVID-19 pandemic, when citizens of Oxford could not support local restaurants in person.
“We’re here to help those restaurants. We’re here to be a resource,” Breckenridge said.
Garner, a junior accountancy major, expressed to Breckenridge that he wanted to start a business and begin working for himself when he was a senior in high school. Through discussions in various parts of the Oxford community, Breckenridge discovered that there was a need for a delivery service that catered to local restaurants.
“There were a lot of older folks that wanted something that could deliver food to them,” Breckenridge said.
After getting input from locals, Garner and Breckenridge tailored their business model to serve within counties instead of just within city limits, like larger delivery platforms that typically geofence their restaurants.
“I felt like it was a void in the market and something that was going to grow for quite some time,” Breckenridge said.
Fetcht began operation in nearby Panola County in order to test the service out before expanding to other counties. Now, Fetcht delivers from most restaurants in the Oxford area and can be delivered throughout Lafayette County.
Many restaurants local to Oxford have faced adversity due to the pandemic and have not had the opportunity to get connected to national delivery services. Fetcht was able to change that.
“When there’s a change in the market, we’re poised to mobilize. We were able to roll out an entire take out option on our website when everyone had to move to curbside pickup,” Breckenridge said.
While Breckenridge and Garner have been business partners for two years now, both of them will admit that it hasn’t been easy.
“The business has strained our relationship at times, but I value his relationship over the business so we try our best to uphold that,” Garner said.
While they will admit their faults when it comes to working with one another, Garner said he learned a lot between his time at the university and working with his stepfather.
“He has owned a few businesses in the past, so between that and getting an accounting degree has taught me a ton,” Garner said.
