A fast food giant based in Dundee and Kinross has warned it is likely to close stores and make hundreds of staff redundant.
Burger King’s chief executive Alasdair Murdoch said the economic damage stemming from the crisis could ultimately force the company to permanently close up to 10% of its stores.
The burger chain operates from two locations in Dundee – the Wellgate Shopping Centre and Kingsway West Retail Park. It also has a location at Kinross Services off the A977.
The Kingsway Retail Park and Kinross sites have been operating a drive through service that has attracted large queues while the Wellgate has remained fully closed.
Mr Murdoch told the BBC’s Newscast: “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.
“It’s not just us – I think this applies to everyone out there in our industry.”
Only about 370 of the restaurant chain’s 530 UK stores have reopened since the nation went into lockdown.
Closing 10% of the chain’s UK shops would mean around 1,600 job losses.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Wednesday unveiled a £30 billion support package to help boost the nation’s economic recovery, which included plans to subsidise restaurant bills throughout August to encourage people to dine out.
However Mr Murdoch added that Government schemes do not do enough to compensate restaurants for the combination of fixed costs and lost sales throughout the pandemic, telling Newscast: “I don’t think you can ever get over the top of this problem.”
