KFC institutes safety measures in all branches
Kentucky Fried Chicken, popularly known as KFC, a fast food chain, has rolled out some safety measures in all its branches across the country for its employees and customers as part of measures to contain the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Ghana.
The measures are in adherence to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and World Health Organisation (WHO) safety protocols on minimising the spread of the pandemic through the food chain industry across the world.
Advertisement
The Business Head of Masco Foods Limited, the company with the KFC franchise in Ghana, Mr John Swanepoel, disclosed this to the Graphic Business in Accra.
Safety protocols for employees and customers
Explaining the measures, Mr Swanepoel said KFC considered its employees and customers as key factors in its business, and had since instituted additional safety measures to protect its employees and customers alike.
He said the company had made available additional basins for handwashing in front of its 19 stores across the country, where every customer was expected to wash their hands before they enter the store.
The temperatures of every customer and employee as well as service providers is taken before they enter the store to transact business.
He also stated that the company discouraged customers from in-store dining during the lockdown by way of adhering to the safety protocols, and had also implemented social distancing practices after the lockdown by means of limited seating throughout the restaurants
It had also carried out safety measures for all customer touch points, including door handles, high-touch surfaces — every employee is constantly screened, including the cook, to ensure that they are all in good health to serve their valued customers.
“All delivery bags are sanitized before every use,” he said.
Awareness creation
“Our biggest object is to ensure the safety of our employees (over 700) — we try to educate them and their families to ensure that they observe social distancing — we have made available to all our employees protective gear for work, face masks, enforce sanitation, take temperatures of cook constantly, and there are also sneeze shields over all our counters for protection of both the customer and employee alike.
“There are also hand sanitisers positioned at vantage points in all our branches across the country, and we employ everyone to make use of them so we can all help fight this pandemic.
“We know these are difficult times, but we assure our customers that they remain paramount in everything we do, and we are ready to serve them in these trying moments as KFC is prepared for the task ahead,” he added.
Impact
“We hope that all these measures will be good examples for other industries to follow or adopt,” he added.
While admitting that the lockdown was having an impact on its sales, Mr Swanepoel indicated that a lot of its customers were also making use of its free delivery services, “reminding us that the restaurants are still operational during the lockdown with the availability of free delivery, takeaway orders and drive thru’s should the customer prefer not leaving their vehicles.”
Home delivery service
The Marketing Manager, Ms Afua Kissi-Nyame, said the company was doing free home delivery services so that people would not have to struggle to leave their homes due to the lockdown.
“All our stores have got home deliveries and drive through, all monies are paid into a tray and cashiers are made to sanitise their hands before and after they touch any money,” she said.
Ms Kissi-Nyame added that the company was strictly adhering to crowd control at the car park and in their stores to observe social distancing, noting that it was setting a good example for proper safety in the food chain industry.
She added that the company had also introduced some packages, including the lockdown packages, to serve every customer while they stayed at home.
