The Burger King, KFC and Pret a Manger quick service restaurant chains in the United Kingdom have reopened a limited number of units for takeaway and/or delivery service. Stringent safety measures have been put in place, with employees wearing personal protective masks and gloves, as well as adhering to social distancing guidelines. Dining-in continues to remain off limits.
Meanwhile, the British government has extended national lockdown restrictive measures for at least another three weeks in an effort to curtail further spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). As of April 16 the pandemic that originated in Wuhan, China late last year has been attributed to the deaths of 13,755 Britons and 141,454 people worldwide. The number of confirmed infection cases globally has topped 2,128,000.
Burger King has reopened four UK sites thus far – in Swindon, Coventry and Bristol – with business expected to resume in a number of additional locations soon. It plans to give away thousands of free meals to National Health Service (NHS) personnel, as well offer items from a reduced option menu to paying customers.
“We want to demonstrate how appreciative everyone at Burger King UK is of the efforts of NHS in these unprecedented times,” said Katie Evans, the company’s marketing director in Britain. “We hope that reopening these restaurants for delivery services goes some way to lifting our customers’ spirits.”
Lights on at Eleven KFC Outlets
KFC is now offering delivery from 11 store locations in the UK: Heaton Chapel, Tamworth, New Oscott, Manchester Hulme, Manchester Deansgate, Portsmouth, Aldershot, Ipswich – Cardinal Park, Glasgow – Pollockshaw Road, Glasgow – Great Western Retail Park, Enfield – Coliseum Retail Park.“To do this in the right way, we’ve put new processes in place and stepped up our already stringent hygiene measures. We’re serving a limited menu, which means we can have a smaller kitchen team to maintain social distancing. Our teams are amazing and we’d never ask them to come back to work if they weren’t comfortable, so they’re returning on an opt-in basis,” according to a statement posted at the company’s website.
It added: “The key workers across the country are doing a phenomenal job. So to say a huge ‘thank you,’ these restaurants have now donated over 5,000 meals to them in partnership with Deliveroo – and will continue to donate 100 meals a week each.”
Pret a Manger
The Pret a Manger sandwich shop chain has reopened 10 outlets for both takeaway and delivery, with more expected to come back on line in due course.
Pointing out that all the reopened units are near hospitals in London, and thus well positioned to serve frontline healthcare workers, CEO Pano Christou stated: “We are incredibly grateful that 160 team members have volunteered to help reopen the shops. Our 50% NHS discount is back, and we’re making 7,000 extra meals a week to donate to our homeless charity partners, so we can continue to support the most vulnerable.”
The chief executive added: “Our priority is always to protect our teams and customers as best we can, and we’ve put in place a number of new social distancing measures to align with the government’s guidance.”
