The Moscow government will support the resumption of the McDonald’s restaurant chain under a new brand. This was announced on Thursday, May 26, by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
“The network of affordable restaurants will continue to operate and develop. With the support of the Moscow government, the new Russian owner will retain the existing network of fast food outlets, the workforce, the usual menu, and service standards, ”says the slide for Sobyanin’s speech in the superfinal of the Leaders of Russia management competition in Gostiny Dvor.
He emphasized that 95-98% of all products used by McDonald’s in Russia are domestic.
“Our chickens, our cutlets, our bread, our tomatoes and cucumbers, and we just need to put it all together, pack and sell it right. We worked with this group for a long time, but we made the right decision, sold the franchise, and the restaurants, I’m sure, will start working again, but under the Russian brand,” commented the mayor.
On May 23, a source in the restaurant market told Izvestia that two Latin letters Ms could be used as the new name for McDonald’s. He said that the letter M can remain branded. However, Oleg Paroev, General Director of the chain in Russia, did not confirm the retention of the yellow letter M in the brand name of the chain.
On May 20, Mikhail Burmistrov, General Director of the INFOLine-Analytics analytical agency, announced that McDonald’s is planned to open in July under a new brand, but they may be in time by the end of June.
The day before, it became known that McDonald’s would sell its business in the Russian Federation to a partner from Siberia, Alexander Govor, an oilman from Novokuznetsk. The businessman plans to develop the company under a new brand, he will buy the entire restaurant portfolio of the chain. In turn, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Viktor Yevtukhov said that the new owner of the restaurants would keep the old recipe.
McDonald’s announced the suspension of operations in Russia on March 14 amid a special operation to protect Donbass. The decision was explained by the arisen “operational, technical and logistical difficulties.”