Burger King Closes 89 Stores In Germany Due To Scandal

On Wednesday, Burger King announced that it would be closing the doors to 89 franchised outlets in Germany.

The closures are a result of a poor hygiene scandal. The closures are effective immediately. Germany has 700 outlets. With the closures, more than 3,000 employees face unemployment and uncertain futures.

Following earlier reports of poor hygiene, the fast food giant announced Wednesday that it was terminating contracts for 89 franchised outlets because of continued poor treatment of staff.

“The difficult, but necessary decision was taken after Yi-Ko repeatedly failed to observe contractually fixed working conditions for its 3,000 restaurant staff”, a Burger King Representative said reports The Local.

Several of the outlets set to close were already temporarily shut down for improvements to its hygiene standards and working conditions.

A undercover report by the RTL television channel says that expired food products were being labeled as fresh, and burgers were being left to warm under warming lights for hours instead of grilled fresh as the franchise advertises.

Some of the other sanitary violations cited include personnel cleaning the toilets, and then preparing the food without properly changing and cleaning themselves up.

The head of Germany’s biggest Burger King franchise quit back in May after the undercover report, exposing poor hygiene and bad working conditions at the fast food chain’s outlets became public.

“After the hygiene scandal in May there were many improvements, but since the summer there were fresh breaches of existing agreements,” Andreas Bork, head of Burger King German operations said.

Yi-Ko also reportedly withheld employees’ holiday pay, bonuses, and sick pay, reports Dailysabah.

“We are now putting an end to it with this decision,” added Bork.

The hygiene scandal in one of Burger King’s biggest franchises has hit the America food chain right where it hurts, in the wallet. The branches have reported revenue losses and a drop in customers.

“It’s hit us hard. We’re seeing revenue losses in many German branches,” Bork said in a recent newspaper interview.

Bork said the franchise is hopeful it can win back its customers by being transparent and improving on its hygiene.

Burger King plans to bring in an outside organization, most likely a health and safety watchdog, to ensure improvements in its German restaurants.

Yi-Ko Holdings runs 91 of Germany’s 671 Burger Kings. The fallout has hit the chain nationwide. Bork says that many well-run restaurants are feeling the effects.

The other 599 restaurants in Germany are expected to continue operating as normal.