PUB company Greene King has announced the measures it is taking across its managed estate to maintain hygiene and safety standards when its pubs reopen.
The five-step ‘Pub Safe’ programme will be adopted across all of the company’s 1700 managed pubs and includes interior layouts and signage to encourage social distancing, Perspex screens at bar serving areas and a number of measures to reduce staff and customer contact including the roll-out of an ‘order and pay’ app which customers will be encouraged to use.
There will also be single-use menus, hand sanitiser stations for customers to use on entry and a ‘one in, one out’ system for toilets with red and green indicators at the toilet entrance which customers can flip with their elbows. Toilets will be cleaned every 15 minutes.
On the staff front, employees are undergoing “extensive training” ahead of reopening and every team member will have their temperature checked at the beginning of their shift. Each site will have a dedicated ‘Pub Safe monitor’, who will be responsible for ensuring all public spaces are cleaned quickly and efficiently.
The Belhaven parent company claims to have invested £15 million introducing the various measures across its pubs.
Greene King chief executive, Nick Mackenzie, said: “We can’t wait to welcome our customers back to our pubs and we know people are eager to return to their local.
“The safety of our customers and team members is always our number one priority and against the backdrop of a slow recovery from COVID-19, we are investing to put in place all the necessary arrangements.
“Of course, customers will notice some differences when they return but it’s important that alongside implementing the changes, we maintain the very essence of the great British pub.
“Many pubs across the country, including a number of our own, will not be financially viable or able to open for operational reasons with the current restrictions in place and we hope that, for the future of our industry, these measures will be short-lived.
“We are working towards a phased re-opening and are planning to open as many as we can. “However, the future of our industry is reliant on continued support from government and reducing social distancing from two metres to one would make it possible for many more pubs across the country to be viable.”
