McDonald’s plans reopening in May

McDonald’s is preparing to reopen its restaurants in Ireland and the UK in mid-May, the Irish Farmers Journal understands.

McDonald’s will reopen on a limited basis, with food served via drive-through or, in some cases, delivery.

Earlier this week McDonald’s reopened a number of its restaurants in France for drive-through only.

It is understood that McDonald’s had originally planned to reopen on 1 July. However, it now appears that it will reopen on this limited basis at an earlier date.

All McDonald’s across Ireland and the UK have been closed since 23 March.

The Irish Farmers Journal also understands that McDonald's is currently in discussion with the Department of Enterprise, Business and Innovation about the details of how it will reopen its 95 restaurants in Ireland.

The fast food giant operates 1,270 restaurants in the UK.

Irish beef

The reopening of McDonald’s is good news for beef farmers, as McDonald’s is one of the biggest buyers of Irish beef. Last year, it bought 40,000t of Irish beef.

In terms of fast food outlets, McDonald’s was the first chain to shut its doors due to the coronavirus pandemic, with KFC, Burger King and Supermac’s also shutting their doors soon after.

McDonald’s sources over €200m worth of food from Irish producers every year.

It buys bacon from Dew Valley in Tipperary, eggs from Greenfield farm in Monaghan and chicken from Moy Park in Northern Ireland.

McDonald’s sources over €200m worth of food from Irish producers every year

In terms of dairy, Kerry Group has a major contract supplying sliced cheese to McDonald’s UK and Ireland restaurants for use on its range of burgers. It also produces the soft ice cream used to make McFlurry desserts.

If you order coffee with from McDonald’s, the UHT milk stick you receive is made by Lakeland Dairies.

McDonald's declined to comment.

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