Throughout September the group will offer a 50% discount on all food and non-alcoholic drinks from Monday to Wednesday with the offer then being pared back in October, with the discount applying on food and soft drinks at lunchtimes only.
The move comes as restaurants face the prospect of a midweek sales slump in September once the EOHO scheme comes to end at the end of the month, with the final day of the discount being a bank holiday.
One restaurateur noted on Twitter that the business was building up to a big last day, with 241 people booked in one of the restaurants on that Monday and only five people booked in on the following day.
By topping up the government’s Eat Out to Help Out offer, we saw a surge in bookings throughout August, and we want to keep that momentum going as we move into Autumn,” says The Coconut Tree brand director Anna Garrod.
The restaurant group, which operates six venues in the UK, has reported strong sales as a result of the EOHO scheme. Like a number of larger restaurant groups, it has opted to remove the £10 limit so that customers can receive an even larger discount on their food.
Extending the discount
The owners of established Indian restaurant Café Spice Namaste, meanwhile, have announced that they are extending the EOHO discount throughout the week for the last fortnight of the scheme’s duration, describing the Government initiative as a ‘lift raft’ for the industry.
The restaurant is not open on a Monday, so has so far only benefited from two days of the discount in the first two weeks of August.
Cyrus and Pervin Todiwala will offer the 50% discount on food and soft drinks from Tuesday to Saturday for the duration of August to help sustain the early-week boost to business that they attribute to the scheme.
“The Eat Out to Help Out scheme has really helped bring back customers to Café Spice Namaste. Everyone has suffered in some way from the effects of the coronavirus, not just ourselves as restaurateurs, and we know most people are tightening their belts like us,” says Pervin Todiwala.
“We hope that by taking the initiative of extending the offer for more than just a couple of days a week, we can end up with a win-win situation, where everyone gains something. ‘
“Eat Out to Help Out is a life raft, however temporary, for our industry,” adds Cyrus Todiwala. Personally, we’ve seen how happy our customers have been to return to Café Spice Namaste and to enjoy our food. We’ve also welcomed many new faces.
“Apart from the financial support, this has given our team a much-needed psychological boost after months in the wilderness. So, extending a concept that has worked for us makes sense and I’m sure it will to our customers as well. We believe it will be worth it."
Figures from Treasury show that businesses have so far claimed for over 35 million discounted meals in the first two weeks of the EOHO scheme, with more than 85,000 restaurants now signed up for it.
There have been calls from the industry for the Government to extend the EOHO scheme beyond August to help businesses continue attract customers as the weather starts to worsen, but there has so far been no indication that it will do so.