Burger King could be forced to close up to one in 10 of its stores, its UK boss has warned.
Speaking on BBC’s Newscast, Alasdair Murdoch warned up to 1,600 jobs could be lost as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
So far, about 370 of the restaurant chain’s 530 UK stores have reopened since going into lockdown.
MORE – Pub group upbeat as it emerges from ‘horrendous’ lockdown period“We don’t want to lose any (jobs). We try very hard not to, but one’s got to assume somewhere between 5% and 10% of the restaurants might not be able to survive,” he said.
“It’s not just us - I think this applies to everyone out there in our industry.”
Mr Murdoch said government schemes did not do enough to compensate restaurants for fixed costs and lost sales as chancellor chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled a £30bn support package to help with the nation’s economic recovery in his mini-budget on Wednesday (July 8).
The chancellor plans to subsidise restaurant bills by up to £10 per person throughout August to encourage people to dine out.
VAT on food and non-alcoholic drink will be temporarily slashed from 20% to 5%.
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