Burger King plans to do half price Whoppers as part of Eat Out to Help Out scheme
BURGER KING plans to do half price Whoppers this summer as part of the government's Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
The government will pick up 50 per cent of the bill - up to £10 per head - when you eat out at a restaurant, cafe or pub in August.
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The discount will only apply Monday to Wednesday with eateries later claiming back the cash, which will then be transferred within five working days.
The scheme is open to any business that offers customers the option to dine-in to eat their food - and Burger King boss Alasdair Murdoch says the fastfood chain plans to sign up.
Speaking on the BBC's Coronavirus Newscast podcast, he said: "We’ll certainly be embracing it, as long as we can understand the terms and conditions and work them out.
"But I would think it’s extremely likely that we would do it."
He added: "You’ll be able to get your Whopper half price, I think you will - Monday to Wednesday."
It would cut the cost of the chain's flagship burger down to £2.25, from £4.49.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak launched the incentive yesterday as part of a wider package of measures aimed at boosting the economy amid the coronavirus crisis.
Finer details of the scheme will be published on July 13, when chains and independent businesses will be able to know for sure what criteria they must follow before being able to register.
What we do know is that the discount will only apply to the cost of food and soft drinks - you'll have to pay full whack for any alcohol you order.
And you will only get money off the bill if you sit inside a restaurant or pub, so it won't count towards takeaways.
At the moment, Burger King is only open for drive-thru and takeaway orders so it would only be able to offer the discount if it reopened restaurants to let diners sit inside to eat their meal.
Yesterday, Mr Sunak announced that VAT on hotels and meals out will be slashed from 20 per cent to 5 per cent to encourage customers to spend cash in the hospitality industry.
He hopes his £30billion support package announced yesterday will help stop mass redundancy, saving 1.8million jobs, when the furlough scheme ends in October.
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But on the podcast, Mr Murdoch warned that despite the measures, the pandemic could force the chain to permanently close 10 per cent of its stores, putting 1,600 jobs at risk.
He said: "We don't want to lose any [jobs]. We try very hard not to, but one's got to assume somewhere between 5 per cent and 10 per cent 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."
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