Yahoo Finance McDonald's offers table service to join Sunak's dine-in scheme
McDonald’s will offer table service at 700 outlets from Wednesday and take part in the Chancellor’s eat out to help out scheme that more than 32,000 restaurants have already signed up for.
Customers dining in at any of the fast food chain’s branches will be asked to fill in their contact details using their smartphone and then place their order via the McDonald’s app or at the till or kiosk.
Social distancing measures will be in place, with a limit on the number of customers allowed inside restaurants at any one time, McDonald’s said. Customers will be asked to use hand sanitiser provided upon arrival and follow safety measures set out in stores.
McDonald’s said some branches will offer customers 50pc off their food bill from Monday to Wednesday during August as part of the Rishi Sunak's eat out to help out scheme. The initiative, which gives consumers a maximum £10 discount off the price of a meal, is designed to encourage people back into hospitality outlets struggling after months of closure.
Figures released by HMRC on Tuesday showed 32,362 restaurants have signed up to the scheme since registration opened last week.
McDonald’s closed all of its UK branches during lockdown but has gradually reopened some sites for delivery and drive-thru only over the past seven weeks.
Restaurants opening for dine-in from Wednesday will not include those in Wales, which is still restricting food outlets and pubs to offering outdoor service only.
Meanwhile, soft drinks giant Coca-Cola reported its biggest quarterly sales drop in a decade on Tuesday following the worldwide closure of restaurants, bars, theatres and sports venues. Hospitality and leisure outlets usually account for about half its annual revenues.
Sales tumbled 28pc to $7.2bn (£5.7bn) in the three months to June 26, with net profit down by a third to $1.8bn compared with the same period a year earlier. Coca-Cola said it could be forced to get rid of some "zombie" brands to protect its income stream.
Its British chief executive, James Quincey, said: "We believe the second quarter will prove to be the most challenging of the year. However, we still have work to do.”
