Prezzo, Pizza Hut and a string of Mayfair and Belgravia restaurants have joined the list of venues funding their own extension of Rishi Sunak‘s meal deal scheme.
The chains will continue the 50 per cent discount into September, which the Government has financed through August.
More than 64million meals were eaten under the scheme during its first three weeks, according to data released on Tuesday.
Around 84,000 restaurants signed up to the scheme, which provides the discount up to £10 between Mondays and Wednesdays, to drive more customers into their sites after reporting weak footfall following the lockdown.
The move is a last roll of the dice for many restaurant chains which teeter on the edge and have had to shut stores after being battered by the pandemic.
Prezzo (pictured), Pizza Hut and a string of Mayfair and Belgravia restaurants have joined the list of venues funding their own extension of Rishi Sunak’s meal deal scheme
The chains will continue the 50 per cent discount into September, which the Government has financed through August (file photo)
Bill’s has said it will keep offering the discount through September, while it will also be launching a discounted set menu starting at £10.
Popular chains Toby Carvery and Harvester have also said they will continue the offer through the first two weeks of next month after seeing strong customer numbers.
Q Hotels Group, which runs 21 sites, said it will also extend the scheme, with plans to have reductions on meals until November.
Restaurants in Mayfair and Belgravia in central London will all continue the discount into September after landowner Grosvenor Estates stepped in to foot the bill.
Grosvenor said it will extend the across participating restaurants, including the Mayfair Chippy, as ‘Central London is not yet back on its feet’ despite receiving a boost from the dining subsidy.
Amelia Bright, executive director of the Grosvenor’s London estate, said: ‘We’re doing all we can to bring people back to the West End to enjoy its world class retail, beautiful architecture and fantastic restaurants.’
Takeaway delivery giant Deliveroo also said it will offer customers a discount in September to encourage them to ‘eat in to help out’, after the scheme ends.
It said it would offer £5 off an order of £20 or more during the first three days of each week in September.
On Wednesday, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) became the latest organisation to call on Government ministers to extend the scheme into September after hailing its success.
The hospitality sector was one of the industries hardest hit by the virus, with 80 per cent of firms halting trading and 1.4million workers being furloughed in April.
Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed that 26.6 per cent of hospitality workers remained of furlough in the two weeks to August 9.
On Tuesday Mexican chain Wahaca announced it is to close more than a third of its restaurants, after becoming the latest dining firm to be hammered by Covid-19.
The group, which was founded by former Masterchef winner Thomasina Miers and Mark Selby, said it will close ten of its 28 sites.
The founders said they intend to ‘try and save jobs’ wherever possible, in an email to staff.
A spokesman said there were currently no plans to extend the Eat Out to Help Out scheme into September.
Sites in London, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Chichester and Southampton have been earmarked for closure, after it saw a ‘significant’ depletion in cash reserves over the past four months.
It said it has seen the rent, as a percentage of sales, of sites in city centre locations increase dramatically, making a number of these restaurants ‘untenable’.
The group said it decided to only reopen restaurants it believes will not lose money, even if sales are significantly reduced, in order ‘to avoid putting the entire business and every job at risk’.
Restaurants in Mayfair and Belgravia (file photo) in central London will all continue the discount into September after landowner Grosvenor Estates stepped in to foot the bill
Wahaca said it is considering a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) restructuring deal in order to facilitate its cost-saving plan.
The announcement comes after a number of dining chain rivals, such as Byron Burger and Pizza Express, have announced permanent closures in the aftermath of the lockdown.
Earlier this week, Wetherspoon warned the coronavirus crisis will push it into the red despite a ‘rapid acceleration’ in sales this month thanks to the Eat Out To Help Out scheme.
The pub chain told investors that equivalent bar and food sales in the 44 days to August 16 were 16.9 per cent lower than in the same period last year.
The slump came despite the opening of 844 of its 873 pubs following their closure in March as the virus lockdown was imposed.
Wetherspoons founder and chairman Tim Martin, 65, said the loss of business means it expects to post a loss for the year to July 26.
But as with other pubs and restaurants, trading at Wetherspoon improved this month after the Eat Out To Help Out scheme was launched.