Wetherspoons boss admits he doesn't know why pub's Steak Club was CANCELLED
WETHERSPOONS boss Tim Martin admitted he didn’t know why the popular pub chain had cancelled its weekly Steak Club on Tuesday.
Wetherspoons customers were left furious after all steaks were pulled from the menu on Tuesday after notices were put up at pubs stating there were “quality issues” with the meat.
The problem hit the company hard with all 900 Wetherspoon and Lloyds No1 pubs being forced to leave their customer disappointed.
The pub chain’s Tuesday Steak Club night sees around 90,000 steaks served across the country every week.
When Mr Martin, the chairman of JD Wetherspoon, was quizzed on why the Steak Club had been cancelled, he failed to answer.
Im sure we’ll get it back on within a couple of days
As LBC host Nick Ferrari brought up the lack of steak, Mr Martin replied: “It’s a very good question.
“We had a product recall yesterday. Pretty rare, but does happen occasionally. And I just don’t know.
“Im sure we’ll get it back on within a couple of days.”
Mr Martin revealed he only found out about the problem when he read about it in a newspaper.
The Wetherspoons boss added: “Someone from the Sun went into one of our pubs for a steak and couldn’t get one.
“It flashed around Britain even before I’d found out. That’s the way it goes.”
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A manager at the Briar Rose pub in Birmingham disclosed that the chain’s head office had told him to “chuck” the meat out on Tuesday morning.
They explained: “We don’t have any steaks or gammon at the moment. Apparently, there’s an issue with the supplier.
"We were told to chuck them this morning, but we have no idea why.
“Everything that was delivered had to go.
“It’s going to cause a few problems because it is steak night tonight, but we won’t be able to serve people any. I can’t wait until we’re told to throw out curry on curry night!
“Everything else in the menu is still available. It’s the steak and the gammon we don’t have.”
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The notices that were echoed by staff set off fear in customers that potential health issues had surfaced with the meat - fears were heightened by reports that the chain’s meat supplier, Russell Hume, had temporarily shut some of its distribution sites.
A Russell Hume spokesman attempted to calm fears by declaring that the move was only a “precautionary action”.
A spokesman said: “We fully support Wetherspoon’s. We are carrying out a product recall on some products across our client base.
“As stated in our recall letter to our clients this has been down to a mislabelling issue. We have no reason to believe that the product is unsafe to eat, however, we are undertaking this as a precautionary action as you would expect us to do.
“Whilst we address this - we have ceased supply from some of our sites. We are amending internal procedures to ensure that controls are in place to stop this re-occuring.”