Photo: Courtesy of Nandos
One of the UK’s most popular restaurant chains has closed around 50 of its branches in the UK after it reported a shortage of chicken due to supply chain issues.The South African multinational restaurant chain, which specialises in flame-grilled peri-peri style chicken and spawned the “cheeky Nando’s” meme, has 450 sites in the UK and Ireland.
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On Wednesday Nando’s apologised to a customer on Twitter who said her “devastated” child was left "in tears and chipless” after a branch of the restaurant in Giltbrook in the English midlands would not serve a takeaway. Nando’s said: “The UK supply chain is having a bit of a ‘mare right now. This is having a knock-on effect with some of our restaurants across England, Scotland and Wales. We are doing everything we can to get the PERi-PERi back where it belongs – on your plates!”A Nando’s spokesperson told VICE World News that working with suppliers has had “a positive impact on affected restaurants.” “The UK food industry has been experiencing disruption across its supply chain in recent weeks due to staff shortages and a number of our restaurants have been impacted,” the spokesperson said. “However, since Monday, a team of our brilliant Nandocas [Nando’s staff] have been supporting our key suppliers onsite – working in partnership to help get things moving again, and this has already had a positive impact on affected restaurants.”Food supply chains have been disrupted since Brexit, when the UK left the EU single market, compounded by the effect of coronavirus on imports and exports. This has left some restaurants with food and labour shortages. Nando’s said it intends to have all restaurants open by Saturday, but would not comment on whether the shortages were Brexit or COVID related.