Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

Credit: CEN/@kennethtiongtt

A restaurant forced to offer a takeaway service after they were closed down because of the lockdown have boosted business by making deliveries to bored customers using a Ferrari F430.

The Southbank Grill & Chill restaurant which is based in Kuching, which is capital of the Malaysian province of Sarawak, were forced to close up shop and then they decided to reopen with a twist to try and keep at least some business going during the lockdown.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin introduced an MCO (Movement Control Order) on 18th March and today (Friday) he announced that it is to be extended for another two weeks after it appeared to be working successfully to reduce the number of new infections.

With restaurants restricted to takeaway services only, the restaurant decided that it needed something extra in order to drum up business, and now they make the deliveries with an extra 100 MYR (18.50 GBP) fee for anybody who wants to have their food delivered by Ferrari.

The Ferrari is also a great promotional tool as they make TikTok videos of each delivery which are instantly made available. People are also sharing images of themselves with their thumbs up in front of the Ferrari as the food is delivered.

The company also stressed that staff are careful to make sure they keep the proper distance during deliveries and photo opportunities.

Credit: CEN/@kennethtiongtt

A spokesman for the restaurant said that income had fallen 95 percent after the MCO was introduced, and the Ferrari promotion coupled with the TikTok campaign which they came up with has been a roaring success.

The spokesman told local media: “We came up with an idea of doing TikTok and some funny ideas to catch everyone’s attention. To our surprise, it worked! Although the sales is not up to what we had before the MCO, it really helps a lot in boosting our sales.”

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