In mid March 2022, after operating in Russia for more than 30 years, McDonald's (mcd.us) announced that it would suspend its business in Russia. On May 16, it announced that it would withdraw from the Russian market and sell its business in Russia. On June 12, a company named vkusno & Tochka's "Russian version of McDonald's" reopened at the original site. The store name translates as "delicious, that's it".
Zhitong finance learned that three days after exiting the Russian market, McDonald's announced that it would sell its business in Russia to its franchise partner alexandergovor. On the day before the opening, Gower said that the new restaurants after the rebranding plan to reopen at the rate of 50 to 80 per week. On Sunday, Russian fast food and economy ushered in a new era. Under the Russian takeover, McDonald's reopened in Moscow and changed its name to "delicious, that's it".
More than 30 years ago, the US Hamburg giant first opened in Moscow, symbolizing the thaw of East-West relations. The unveiling of the Russian version of McDonald's has once again become a distinctive symbol of the new world order. The reopening time is Russian National Day.
At noon on the 12th, outside the restaurant of Pushkin square store in the center of Moscow, there was a long queue of people, including a large number of media reporters as well as young people who clocked in to taste the fresh food. In the restaurant, no matter in front of the self-service ordering machine or the manual counter, people are surrounded. The ordering machine also suffered a system crash. The first person to enter the store for consumption was a young man named Alexei. According to him, although he officially opened at 11 o'clock, he came to Pushkin square at 4 o'clock in the morning. During an interview, he said: "the hamburgers, potatoes and everything else inside have become better“
Between the old and the new
McDonald's sold the chain when it withdrew from Russia due to the conflict in Ukraine. The fate of this fast-food chain can test the extent to which the Russian economy can successfully achieve self-sufficiency and withstand Western sanctions.
Vkusno & Tochka has a smaller menu, without Big Macs and other hamburgers and desserts, such as mcflurry. A double cheeseburger costs 129 rubles (US $2.31), while McDonald's costs about 160 rubles; A fish burger costs 169 rubles, up from about 190 rubles.
Alexandermerkulov, the quality manager of the new company, said that the ingredients of hamburgers had not changed, nor had McDonald's equipment.
Most of the packages of French fries and hamburgers are pure white, so are the drink cups, and the takeaway bags are pure brown, which indicates that the new boss has to rush to rebrand before the new product is released. The Old McDonald's logo on tomato sauce and other sauce packages was temporarily painted black.
Vkusno & Tochka Moscow flagship restaurant is one of the 15 renamed stores that opened in the capital and surrounding areas on Sunday. Vkusno & Tochka CEO Oleg paropev pointed out that the company plans to reopen 200 restaurants in Russia by the end of June, and to open all 850 restaurants before the end of the summer.
Paloyev, vkusno & Tochka will retain the original interior decoration, but will delete any references to previous names. Paloyev was appointed CEO of McDonald's Russia a few weeks before the conflict in Ukraine began. "Our goal is to make the guests unaware of the differences in quality and atmosphere," paloyev said at the restaurant's press conference
The company's new boss, Siberian businessman Alexander gover, told the media that the company would consider launching products similar to McDonald's brand big Mac. However, he told the media: "we have no right to use certain colors, we have no right to use the golden arch, and we have no right to mention McDonald's."
Paloev added that the company was looking for new soft drink suppliers because some stocks of Coca Cola (ko.us) were decreasing and Coca Cola had suspended sales in Russia; Except for 2%, all the raw materials of the chain store come from Russia.
However, shortly after the news conference, a man stood in front of the camera, holding a sign that said "bring the Big Mac back". He was soon escorted out by the restaurant staff.
Mr gover is one of many Russians snapping up assets as hundreds of Western companies flee. He said on Sunday that he had bought McDonald's in Russia at a "symbolic" price "that was" far below the market price ". McDonald's, the world's largest hamburger chain, charged as much as $1.4 billion after the sale.
Russian authorities say McDonald's has the right to buy back its restaurants within 15 years. But Goff poured cold water on this possibility; "They made it clear to me that they would not buy back," the media quoted him as saying