Wagamama gives customers tipping information on menus

Fast growing Japanese noodle chain Wagamama is to include information about its tipping policy on menus over fears customers will stop rewarding staff.

Wagamama, which has 59 UK outlets and 33 international sites, said it was planning action because it feared staff would lose out due to the negative publicity generated by the Unite/Daily Mirror and Independent fair tips campaigns.

The group, which opened its first restaurant in the US last year, gives all tips to staff via payroll, takes no adminstration charge and does not levy a service charge on bills. This is on top of all staff recieving at least National Minimum Wage if not more.

Lisa Johnson, director of marketing at Wagamama, told Caterersearch: "We want to make sure the customer knows that if they leave a tip it's genuinely going to staff."

Although sympathetic to the aims of the Independent, which endorses its own practices, the restaurant group has not officially signed up to the newspaper's fair tips campaign, as reported in today's edition (22 July).

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By Chris Druce

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