McDonalds to start opening take-away service from 24 June

McDonalds, which opened for drive-throughs in Swindon last week, has announced that it will be reintroducing its take-away service across the country to be rolled out from 24 June. In a statement UK CEO Paul Pomroy said:

Over the last four weeks, we have carefully reopened over 1,000 restaurants for Drive-thru or McDelivery®, only progressing to new channels and more restaurants when we were confident that we could provide a safe working environment for our people.

Following a closed test in London last month, I am pleased to confirm that we will begin reopening for takeaway and click and collect. Starting on Wednesday 17thJune, in 11 Roadchef service station locations, we will welcome motorway users back inside our restaurants for the first time since March. We're taking our time to get this right, reviewing our processes before we gradually roll-out to high streets, towns and city centres from 24th June onwards.

In order to help serve you safely for takeaway:
 

•	We will provide clear signposting and floor-markings to create a one-way system around our restaurants for you and our delivery partner couriers;
•	We will only allow certain numbers of people inside our restaurants at a time to help you and us adhere to social distancing – this will vary depending upon the restaurant size and lay-out;
•	When you visit us for takeaway, we will welcome you inside when a space becomes available, and we'll ask you to sanitise your hands at the cleaning stations we are introducing in all restaurants;
•	We will have fewer self-order screens switched on and will sanitise those in use at least every 30 minutes. You can also order via the My McDonald's app;
•	If you can visit alone to collect your food, please do so, however we know this isn't always possible – children are of course still welcome, but for now we'll be putting away our crayons and colouring sheets and keeping the play areas and digital play areas closed;
•	Our seating areas, customer toilets and lifts will remain closed;
•	As our dining areas will not be open, our recycling points will also remain closed but most of our packaging can be recycled so please do dispose of it responsibly and recycle wherever possible when you get home;
•	To help protect our employees and other customers, we ask you not to visit if you feel unwell.

These measures are on top of those already introduced to our open Drive-thru and McDelivery® restaurants:
 

•	We've installed Perspex screens in the kitchens, service areas and Drive-thru windows and provide additional protective equipment for our teams, including disposable gloves for people in customer and courier facing positions and face coverings;
•	We have fewer people on each shift, serving a reduced menu over reduced hours (11am-10pm);
•	We continue to ask that you use contactless payment methods and cap your spend at £25 wherever possible;
•	And we continue to encourage you to use the My McDonald's app to view the menu, order and pay before arrival.

We're delighted to be back. I am extremely proud of our employees, franchisees and suppliers who are working so hard in so many communities already.

The high street is at the heart of our business, it is where we started in the UK, in Woolwich over 45 years ago.

In line with Government changes to lockdown restrictions, over the next few weeks and months we'll reopen on high streets across the UK and in towns and cities in Ireland. I know that opening those doors will be incredibly satisfying for our restaurant teams, but it will also mean them getting used to the measures we have implemented to enable us to safely return. So please continue to support them and follow the social distancing measures we've introduced for the safety of our teams and you.

Tomorrow, we'll switch McDelivery® back on in over 570 restaurants across the UK and Ireland. The full list will be available on our website in the morning and depending upon your location, you'll be able to order via Uber Eats or Just Eat from 11am.

Separately, I am also delighted to confirm we are preparing for the return of the much-missed McMuffin®. On 24th June we will trial breakfast service in a small number of restaurants, and if successful aim to roll-out nationwide in July. Throughout this reopening I've committed to our employees that we will only move forward to the next stage when I am confident we can do so whilst still enabling safe working. We'll announce the restaurants involved in the breakfast trial nearer the time and thank you in advance to the teams participating in this test.

Thank you again for the support you have shown the business and our employees over the last few weeks, we are all incredibly grateful for the reaction to our reopening. We will continue to keep you updated on the above trials and changes through our website and social media channels.

Regards,
Paul Pomroy
Chief Executive Officer, McDonald's UK and Ireland