The Belgian brewery Alken-Maes has launched an online platform, Café Solidair, on which Belgian café-goers can already order their beers now, to drink when the cafés will open again.
The brewery wants to help the catering industry, which has been shut down by the government's measures to prevent the further spread of the new coronavirus (Covid-19) until at least 5 April.
"At the start of the measures against the further spread of Covid-19, it became clear that the impact on the hospitality industry would be enormous. Starting from the concept of 'pay-it-forward', we set up the digital platform in a short period of time," said Toon Diependaele, managing director at Wunderman Thomspon Brussels to PUB. "With this campaign, we connect the café owners of Cristal and Maes with their customers, with Alken-Maes acting as facilitator and sponsor," he added.
With the Café Solidair campaign, people pay online for their beer in their chosen café, pub or brasserie now, and can drink them once the sector opens its doors again. This gives the owners some extra financial means to bridge the closing period.
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"On the website, you can choose your favourite Maes or Cristal café and then select the number of beers you want to pay for in advance," said Jan Bosselaers, Marketing Director at Alken-Maes, to Metro.
"Once the payment has been confirmed, the amount will be transferred to the café owner. As a consumer, you will receive a voucher that you can use at the reopening of the café to drink your beers. You can also choose to make a donation to your local pub. We are hoping for about 4,000 to 5,000 participating cafés," he added.
The brewery will give the first 400 beers to every participating café. "This will give your favourite café a boost as soon as it opens again," it said on the campaign website.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
