Pizza Hut staff back for a slice of the action as Northampton's restaurants reopen

Pizza Hut will reopen its Northampton restaurants for dine-in deep-pan lovers from today.

Around 60 staff furloughed for nearly four months are back at work at Sixfields and Riverside but will have their temperature checked ahead of every shift to ensure they are fit to work.

Bosses at Pizza Hut have also come up with a novel idea to replace its iconic lunchtime buffet with a 'Bluffet' allowing diners to stay at their table while their bottomless food and drink is bought to their table, minimising contact inside the restaurant.

Full details of the new-look Pizza Huts can be found HERE.

Kathryn Austin, Chief People and Marketing Officer at Pizza Hut Restaurants, commented saying: “We’re delighted to start re-opening our restaurants across the UK this week.

"The new Eat Out to Help Out scheme, announced by Rishi Sunak, will also help us reunite guests with their Pizza Hut favourites and we look forward to updating everyone on how this will work once we receive further government guidance.”

Pizza Hut, which employs around 8,000 people nationwide opened the first wave of restaurants among its 245-strong chain last week.

Northampton's two sites at Sixfields and Riverside are among the second wave back in business today. Other Northamptonshire sites at Wellingborough and Kettering are still waiting on a date for reopening.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the Eat Out to Help Out scheme last week giving customers who dine out on certain days in August a discount worth up to £10 each.

The furlough scheme, officially called the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, was launched in March to help companies continue to pay staff while businesses were shut during the Covid-19 crisis. The government promised to cover 80 per cent of a worker's salary up to a cap of £2,500 each month.

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