Nando’s hopes to reopen all branches by the weekend after “staff shortage” Business News

Nando’s said it hopes to reopen all of its restaurants by this weekend, after 45 of them have closed due to a chicken shortage caused by staff issues at major vendors.

Many restaurants have been forced to close due to staff shortages at supply factories and the reduction in the number of truck drivers.

The restaurant chain said that as of Monday, a team of 70 of its employees had been seconded to key suppliers, to help wrap and wrap the products.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Nando said: “The UK food industry has experienced disruption in its supply chain in recent weeks due to staff shortages, and a number of our restaurants have been affected.

“However, since Monday, a team of our brilliant Nandocas [employees of Nandos] have supported our main suppliers on site, working in partnership to help make things happen, and this has already had a positive impact on the restaurants involved.

“We plan to relaunch all of our restaurants starting this Saturday thanks to the hard work behind the scenes, and we look forward to welcoming our customers back to taste their favorite Peri-Peri chicken.”

However, industry sources told the PA news agency that posted workers would not be enough to fill the staffing gap.

The source said the added “complexity” of the demands of restaurants like Nando’s – making products like their popular Peri-Peri chicken – meant they would face higher levels of supply disruption than other retailers. intended for consumers, such as supermarkets.

While Nando’s has said factors related to Covid – like ‘pingemia’ – have compounded problems in the UK food industry, the restaurant chain has not explicitly named Brexit as a factor.

But other companies, such as Avara Foods, a chicken and turkey supplier that supplies large supermarkets and restaurants across the UK, said Thursday their own supply chain problems were “the result of Brexit “.

In a statement to Sky News, the company said, “Our company does not experience any major drawbacks from ‘pingemia.’ The isolations among colleagues, relative to our size, are low.

“Our concern is recruiting and filling vacancies when the UK workforce has been severely depleted as a result of Brexit; this is causing stress on UK supply chains in several sectors.

The statement added: “Labor availability is a totally separate issue from the pandemic, and one that has the potential to affect food manufacturing in the UK for much longer.”