McDonald’s wants the government to allow drive-thrus to open under lockdown Level 3.
The fast-food giant says this will allow more employees to return to work, and the business to secure their jobs, reports eNCA.
Under Level 3, restaurants are allowed to operate but only for deliveries.
McDonald’s South Africa CEO Greg Solomon says: “We’re humble and we’re thankful for opening up delivery but it’s just over 10% of our total business, it is almost like taking our eight million customers a month and saying go use delivery.
“It’s been sweet and sour. Deliveries allowed us to sort of oil the wheels and get used to operating in an environment where we need to use PPE and have limited hours.”
Solomon said the revenue has been “reasonably pleasing” but the deliveries were the company’s “smallest and least profitable channel”.
“Drive-thru, on the other hand, we believe is equal if not better from a social distancing standpoint and from a hygiene standpoint we believe certainly that will open up the market.
“We’ve got three hundred restaurants, only 100 are operating on delivery.”
He said with only 10% of the business operating, it will have huge ramifications on their supply chain.
“If government doesn’t continue to open parts of the economy and our business we cannot sustain delivery for much longer,” Solomon warned.