Greene King is launching its second covid emergency support fund later this month to help team members most in need during lockdown.

The new Team Member Support Fund follows the first scheme, which ran from March to June last year, when Greene King donated £650,000 in grants for team members to access essential food and retail vouchers.

The fund will again be managed independently by the Licensed Trade Charity, which has been supporting workers from pubs, bars, and breweries with practical advice, emotional support and financial grants since 1793.  

Greene King chief executive, Nick Mackenzie, said: “It’s a really tough start to 2021, back into lockdown and all of our pubs closed. Most of our team members are furloughed, and we know how severely this is affecting some of our people financially, so we wanted to bring back the Team Member Support Fund to help the members of our team who need it most at this really difficult time.   

“Our industry has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, and when we have been able to open our pubs, our brilliant team members have eagerly welcomed our customers back, safely. But right now, they need our help.

‘We’re a family and we want to support each other’

“One of our key objectives since the start of the covid crisis is to, as far as possible, protect our employees and leased and tenanted partners from the worst impact of the crisis.  We’re a family, and we want to support each other.

“I want to thank the Licensed Trade Charity for once again supporting us with managing this fund. They do an amazing job and we couldn’t deliver it without them.”

Jim Brewster, chief executive of the Licensed Trade Charity, added: “Licensed trade people have been balancing huge practical, emotional, and financial pressures for many months now, and we are very pleased to work with Greene King to add to the support we are able to offer at this incredibly difficult time.”

The funds have once again been raised from a combination of voluntary salary sacrifices from the Executive Board and leadership team at Greene King and a company donation.