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McDonald’s restaurants run out of milkshakes across the country

The restaurant group says it has also run out of bottled drinks at most of its UK sites

Georgina Pellant - 24th August 2021

It appears that McDonald’s is the latest fast-food chain to be hit by HGV driver supply chain issues, as the country wakes up to the news that there is not a single McDonald’s milkshake to be found in the whole of the UK today.

McDonald’s has said it cannot serve milkshakes in any of its UK restaurants due to a supply chain issue, meaning there’s no strawberry marshmallow, no vanilla special, no nothing coming out of the machines today.

The group has blamed a shortfall in its supply chain and said this has affected a small number of menu items, causing a shortage not just on milkshakes but also on some bottled drinks at its UK stores.

A spokesperson for McDonald’s has said that its staff is “working hard to return these items to the menu as soon as possible”.

Reports suggest that the shortage is being caused by a lack of f HGV drivers – a knock-on effect of new EU immigration rules that have come into effect because of Brexit, as well as issues caused by Covid regulations and the ‘pingedemic’.

A shortfall of 100,000 drivers has been predicted by the Road Haulage Association (RHA), leading to lobby groups writing to the government’s Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng asking for MP’s to grant new temporary work visas to EU drivers to help resolve the problem.

Elsewhere, it is being suggested that if these supply issues are not fixed the country may end up with a shortage of turkeys this Christmas if things do not improve.

McDonald’s is not the only restaurant to have been affected, either. A shortage of chicken at popular peri-peri chain Nando’s caused the group to shut fifty of its restaurants last week, whilst KFC and Co-op have also issued statements regarding shortfalls in their supply chains.

Nando’s even went so far as to send some of its restaurant staff to try and help plug the gap and get things moving again.

Business groups are now piling pressure on the government to reverse its decision not to grant temporary work visas to EU drivers, in the hopes that this will get things moving again.

Feature image – Robert Wade.