Spur stores will not reopen at the end of lockdown (when physical-distancing rules are expected to apply again) the restaurant group has told landlords, because that would be “commercial suicide” Business Insider reports.
Other than only select Rocomamas burger joints, all Spur and Panarottis restaurants will remain closed as long as they face restrictions on the number of customers and when they can sell booze, Spur group’s chief operating officer Mark Farrelly said in a letter to landlords.
That decision comes from hard experience immediately before the lockdown, when such restrictions were first introduced.
“The restricted trade was so injurious that the lockdown almost came as a relief as the cost of individual closures was preferable to the hideous trading losses our franchisees were incurring,” Farrelly wrote.
“On average, our turnovers dropped over 70%, and it proved impossible to run a viable business with the restrictions in place.”
Spur, he said, was not going to have its franchisees take on the cost of reopening after lockdown, “only then to sustain catastrophic losses.”
“One of our major concerns is that we are going into winter (the flu season) and rightfully, people will continue to be alarmed by anyone coughing and sneezing,” he said.
There are more than 600 Spur restaurants across the country, which employ approximately 30 000 employees.
