McDonald's is preparing to reopen restaurants, UK boss announces

The fast food giants announced that it was shutting all of its sites across the country, including the ones in Portsmouth, on March 22 – a day before the country went into lockdown.

McDonald’s was forced to respond to rumours that it would be reopening for delivery only in May on social media.

The company wrote: ‘We promise we will update you here as soon as we have confirmed our plans. Stay safe, stay at home and we will see you soon.’

Paul Pomroy, McDonald's chief executive officer for UK and Ireland, said it decided to close its restaurants temporarily for ‘the safety of our people and customers’ but has recently begun looking at a ‘potential and limited reopening’.

The restaurant chain said it is engaging with government and trade bodies, as well as listening to employees and customers, to ensure sites are opened ‘when the time is right’.

Mr Pomroy said the business is ‘carrying out some operational tests to explore what our reopening might look like’ throughout this week.

He said the tests will include exploring social distancing measures for staff, PPE options and opening in a limited capacity.

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McDonald's provided no details regarding when it intends to re-open its first restaurants for orders from the public.

Mr Pomroy added: ‘Restarting our business is not an easy task even when reopening in a limited capacity.

‘We have set ourselves some key criteria for reopening, all of which take time - first and foremost ensuring the wellbeing of our people and creating the right environment for them to return to work; secondly ensuring we have enough supply of fresh produce; and finally working in step with government guidelines to ensure the safety of our customers.

‘For now we remain closed, and will only reopen when we are absolutely confident we can have the right measures in place to ensure everyone's wellbeing.’

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