MSC provides guidance as restaurants work toward July 4 reopening date

With garden centres in Wales and England now having been given the green light to re-open, and with the Government’s Coronavirus response roadmap suggesting that restaurants and cafés may be able to open in some format from as early as July 4^th, a light has appeared at the end of the tunnel for owners.

As such, all restaurant and café businesses will be committed to spending the coming weeks preparing their establishment to ensure the safety of customers, staff and suppliers alike, and planning specialists at Malcolm Scott Consultants are working closely with clients to support them in meeting the necessary requirements and in minimising loss of revenue in their hospitality areas.

Andrew Burton of MSC said: “Due to the detail and complexity needed to ensure that a café or restaurant is set-up to support the customers, the staff and the business as a whole, preparing and delivering a new and effective plan can take weeks – so it is imperative that establishments start preparations now in order to be able to open when the Government deems it safe to do so.

“Recent weeks have seen us liaising with furniture and PPE suppliers, as well as our Environmental Health Officer to ensure that we have the latest guidance to support clients in taking the necessary steps toward opening their facilities.  Staff scheduling, compliance and process reviews also play key parts of the planning ahead too.

“Combining official guidance with MSC’s operational experience, we have developed an extensive checklist to work through with clients, which will be enhanced in the coming weeks as the Government clarifies specific requirements,” he said.

While MSC has identified that some sites may need to remove up to 40 per cent of restaurant seats due to the necessary repositioning of chairs and table, the team is striving to minimise that figure and has already identified methods to reduce this down to as little as 15 per cent, whilst adhering to social distancing and safety requirements through clever reconfigurations.

Andrew added: “Every seat in a restaurant can generate more income, and each site will have its own different challenges, but our team is working closely with restaurant owners and managers to provide support in making decisions and planning for much-anticipated future opening of the hospitality sector.”

Any businesses requiring expert support in planning compliance in restaurant reopening can contact the MSC team by emailing Andrew at andrewb@malcolmscottcons.co.uk