McDonald’s will reopen this week for delivery only – but Mancs are gutted they have to wait longer

The CEO of McDonald’s UK and Ireland has announced plans to reopen a selection of 15 restaurants this week for delivery only.

Selected sites will start to reopen from Wednesday 13th May at 11am with a limited menu available exclusively via Uber Eats.

These 15 restaurants were chosen for their proximity to the McDonald’s UK distribution centre as they slowly but safely seek to reopen restaurants and restart their supply chain.

We are pleased to confirm the 15 restaurants we will open for McDelivery only from 13th May. pic.twitter.com/WkGsAjg83M

— McDonald's UK (@McDonaldsUK) May 5, 2020

Although Mancunians are disappointed, if not seething, that the list of initial 15 restaurants does not include any Greater Manchester locations, they can be reassured that Maccies are working hard to reopen more and more in coming weeks.

https://twitter.com/lukehopkins2002/status/1257656205419458560?s=20

@McDonalds you can forget my custom when you open manchester stores,your excuse is pathetic.does the north exist?

— brian mckeown (@brianmckeown1) May 6, 2020

https://twitter.com/Lynsey3xx/status/1257682979981312002?s=20

https://twitter.com/jaIboyhes/status/1257605792603213824?s=20

https://twitter.com/broadstairs2010/status/1256176968439119878?s=20

“I want to apologise in advance if our first wave of reopened restaurants does not serve your area,” said Paul Pomroy, CEO, McDonald’s UK and Ireland. 

“Rest assured, we are working hard to reopen more restaurants, but I am adamant this must be at the right pace with the wellbeing of our employees, suppliers and customers front of mind. Thank you for your patience.”

These 15 restaurants were chosen for their proximity to the McDonald’s distribution centre as they slowly but safely seek to reopen restaurants and restart their supply chain.

When restaurants do actually reopen across the UK, they will open with restricted opening hours (so none open 24 hours), limited menus, perspex screens, floor markings, and strict social distancing measures.

Highlights from the full statement by Mr Pomroy:

“As part of our reopening planning, we have been listening to you and our employees. We have deliberately taken our time [with reopening], we want to get this right.  

“This week we have been running controlled tests to explore the safest way to reopen our restaurants. 

“On May 13th, we will reopen 15 of our restaurants in the UK; this will be in a limited capacity with delivery only.”

“We will increase how often these procedures are completed and provide all employees with updated training on restaurant cleanliness and sanitisation. All restaurants will be deep cleaned before reopening.

“We will introduce the following measures to help keep our people safe: such as perspex screens and floor markings in specific areas; additional protective equipment including non-medical grade face masks; all employees will have temperatures taken on arrival at work for every shift; and we will also be introducing social distancing measures for all of our delivery and service partners.

“We will return with much smaller teams in our restaurants and as a result will be returning with a limited menu. This will support social distancing in our kitchens, whilst still providing many McDonald’s iconic menu items.  

“To reduce the complexities in our kitchens at menu changeover, we will temporarily not be serving breakfast. As we reopen we will explore the ways in which to help our employees safely change over menus and we will reintroduce our breakfast menu as soon as we can.”

“We are working with our delivery partner Uber Eats to ensure the wellbeing of our delivery drivers as well as our employees. Perspex screens, sanitising stations and new social distancing procedures will be introduced as we continue the contact free collections and drop offs we closed with back in March.”

Read the full statement here.

McDonald’s has more than 1,450 restaurants across the UK and Ireland and employs more than 135,000 people. They took the decision to temporarily close all their UK restaurants ‘for the safety of employees and customers’ in March.

McDonald’s made around 10% of its business through Uber Eats in 2019, and decided to expand its delivery services to 950 of its 1,250 UK restaurants, according to a report published in October by This is Money.

The first 15 McDonald’s branches reopening for delivery are all in the south.

Contrary to a slightly misleading article published by the Manchester Evening News, Maccies haven’t issued any news about reopening their drive-thru’s.