McDonalds is re-opening some of its walk-in restaurants this week on a trial basis.
The restaurant had been limiting its services to drive through only during level 5 restrictions.
A small number of restaurants will re-open this week on a trial basis, with McDonalds saying it hopes to have the majority of restaurants open for walk-in takeaway across Ireland from February 22nd.
Last year it emerged McDonalds was looking to expand after Covid shutdown.
The Irish arm of fast food giant, McDonalds is eyeing further expansion to its operations after its temporary Covid 19 shutdown.
Accounts for McDonalds Restaurants of Ireland Ltd show that pre-tax profits at the company increased by 18% to €20 million in 2018, despite revenues declining by 16% to €73.6m in 2018 as a result of transferring three owner operated restaurants to franchisees.
The directors confirm that in October of last year, the company paid a dividend of €20m to MCD Europe Ltd and said they anticipate further expansion of its operations here and this follows the Irish company receiving a cash injection of €75m in 2018.
The directors said they anticipate further expansion of its operations here.
The accounts state that all stores in the network were shut down on March 23rd due to Covid 19 and the store’s drive-thru network has been opening since May 6th.
A spokeswoman for McDonalds Ireland said: “The business is still in the process or reopening - in fact, just this morning, we reopened dine-in services for the first time in 27 of our restaurants across Ireland.
This is the latest phase of McDonald’s reopening plan which aims to expand the dine-in service to further restaurants over the coming weeks.”
The McDonalds business here in recent years has been continuing with a strategy of transferring owner operated stores to franchisees. At the end of December 2018, the number of franchise stores increased from 86 to 90.
The company on January 1st 2018 became tax resident in the UK as the business is now managed and controlled from the UK and pays Irish corporation tax on its owner operated stores which was down to two at the end of 2018.
Numbers employed in 2018 reduced from 675 to 342 as staff costs reduced from €16.3m to €7.2m.
