Costa Coffee and Pret are the latest businesses closing their doors in a response to the rapid spread of the Coronavirus outbreak. Both companies released statements on social media earlier today:
Costa Coffee said: “At Costa Coffee our number one priority is the safety of our store teams and customers. As the need to support social distancing increases, we have taken the decision to temporarily close our stores from this evening, Monday 23 March.
“We will do our best to keep Costa stores open in hospitals where we will continue to provide free takeaway coffee for the next two weeks to the NHS workers who are at the forefront of this crisis.
“Wherever possible, we will also keep our Costa Express machines available to serve you a great cup of coffee. Our baristas are the heart of our business. During these unprecedented times we are extremely grateful for the service they have continued to deliver to our customers. As previously communicated, we will be paying all our store team members, whose store has closed, their full average weekly pay over eight weeks.”
Pret also released a statement from its CEO on its Twitter page, stating:
“I want to thank our amazing teams for serving you with great passion and kindness over the recent weeks, including more than 100,000 NHS workers.
“Pret’s first value is Happy Teams, Happy Customers and my priority is always to protect our teams as much as we can. For this reason, we will be closing all our UK shops temporarily from this evening. We will of course ensure any excess food goes to those who need it most.
“We look forward to being a part of your daily lives again soon. Until then, stay healthy and look after each other.”
