In my last update in July, we were preparing to reopen for dine-in, extending our opening hours and expanding our McDelivery® service through Uber Eats and Just Eat. Eight weeks on I am incredibly proud of how our restaurant teams have adapted to accommodate these changes, and grateful to you, our customers, for your patience and support as we have adjusted to our new ways of working.
As we’ve increased the services and menu items we’re offering, we have continued to prioritise enabling safe working for our people and safe visiting for our customers. This has meant changing some of our procedures and enhancing safety measures to continue to give you peace of mind. In the last month we have:
| • | Installed portable screens in our dining areas to provide additional protection for those of you choosing to dine-in; |
| • | Positioned additional protective screens near our self-order kiosks to create ordering booths; |
| • | Removed chairs and free-standing furniture to increase the size of walkways; |
| • | Enabled our front of house teams to support customers in making use of Table Service and the My McDonald’s app when visiting. |
This week, we’ve also trialled Click. Park. Collect in 24 restaurants, enabling food to be delivered to your parked car via the My McDonald’s app. We’ve introduced Apple Pay too, to provide even greater convenience for those seeking contact-free ways to order and pay through the app.
We’re continually reviewing the solutions we’ve introduced to ensure they remain practical and enable our teams to work and you to visit safely. Thank you on behalf of our employees for your continued adherence to these guidelines. I know in some cases you’ve had to wait a little longer and things have been different. But I’m sure you’ll agree that it is everyone’s responsibility to keep one another safe, and to play our part we will continue to update our procedures in line with the latest government and public health authority guidance.
I know some favourites are still missing from the menu, and many of you have been asking if and when they’ll make a return. We are constantly testing reintroducing additional menu items, but I have been clear throughout that we will only do so when we are confident we can bring them back safely. Each new item can put additional pressure on the restaurant teams, so ahead of introducing something new, we work with an open restaurant to test cooking, preparing and serving in high volumes to ensure that it can be brought to all customers safely.
The Triple Cheeseburger is a great example. This was incredibly popular during the sales test earlier in the year and we knew our restaurant teams needed to have adjusted to all of the new procedures before we could bring it to every restaurant. We launched last week, once we were confident that we could introduce it safely, and from the reaction we’ve seen in restaurants and on social media, it remains as popular now as it was during the test. We are working hard to find ways to reintroduce our grilled chicken for our wraps and salads as soon as we can safely do so, in order to provide even greater choice for our customers.
As government guidance continues to change and develop, we will work quickly to ensure our restaurants remain safe, clean and welcoming for you and your families. We appreciate the feedback you’ve given us on the measures we’ve introduced, and will continue to ensure we serve the communities in which we operate safely and responsibly.
Thank you for all your support in keeping one another safe.
Paul Pomroy
Chief Executive Officer, McDonald’s UK and Ireland
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