Closing children's play areas, placing glass in predetermined places and using disposable tableware and cutlery are some of the new health and safety protocols that restaurants must apply when faced with a change in business.
When restaurants begin to reactivate service in table areas, once the most critical phases of the covid-19 outbreak are over, companies must apply rigorous hygiene and social distancing protocols.
The Guatemalan Italian food chain announced expansion plans for the second half of 2011 in Honduras and El Salvador.
Francisco Fajardo, manager of the franchise said that they are in the process of analyzing the logistics of supplying ingredients either by creating a distribution center in each country or by sending them from Guatemala.
"In some restaurants we will have a joint venture and in other we will work thorough a franchise program," Waleska Zimeri, marketing manager at Al Macarone, told Prensalibre.com.
The Al Macarone chain has opened four new restaurants and expects to add another 13 by the end of the year.
Since beginning operations in 1977 the chain has inaugurated 62 restaurants, of which 11 operate as a franchise.
"We expect to have a total of 75 establishments by the end of 2010 and also start investing in the rest of the Central American isthmus using the franchise model," explained Francisco Farjardo, Al Macarone's head of franchise operations, to Elperiodico.com.gt.