MOSCOW —
The restaurant that launched McDonald’s in Russia in 1990, heralding
Moscow’s
opening after decades of Soviet rule, reopened Sunday with a new name and logo
in a potent reminder of the upheaval sparked by the conflict in Ukraine.
اضافة اعلان
The US fast-food
giant announced on May 16 that it would exit Russia in the wake of its
Ukraine offensive.
In Moscow’s
Pushkin Square on Sunday, dozens of people gathered outside the Russian
incarnation of the fast-food restaurant, “Vkusno i tochka” (“Delicious. Full
Stop”), well before the official noon (0900 GMT) opening.
“My whole family
went... three times to McDonald’s for a farewell meal,” Elena, a programmer and
mother of two, told AFP. “Now we’re going for a reunion lunch,” she smiled.
Inside,
31-year-old Oleg, one of the first customers to receive his order, said “Vkusno
i tochka” was “delicious, beautiful and cheap.”
The restaurant, on
the spot where the very first
McDonald’s opened its doors to long queues and
great fanfare in January 1990, is among the first 15 to welcome customers.
On Monday, another
50 restaurants are set to open, according to Oleg Paroyev, general manager of
the new group, with the chain then planning to reopen 50 to 100 a week across
the country.
In place of the
Golden Arches, there’s a new logo — two stylized orange fries alongside a red
dot on a green background. There are still double cheeseburgers on the menu, as
well as a wide range of ice creams and desserts. But the “Mc” prefix no longer
appears.
“We had to remove
some products from the menu because they refer directly to McDonald’s, such as
the McFlurry and Big Mac,” Paroyev said.
Prices have risen
“slightly” due to the inflation that has hit Russia hard after Western
countries-imposed sanctions — but they remain “reasonable” he added.
As for the
packaging, it is “neutral” — “no word, no letter” should remind customers of
the McDonald’s group, Paroyev said.
McDonald’s Russian
restaurants had accounted for around nine percent of the US group’s turnover.
Three days after
the company announced its exit in May, Russian businessman Alexander Govor, who
had been a licensee of the chain, bought the 850-restaurant operation. “I am
ambitious and I don’t only plan to open the 850 restaurants but to develop new
ones,” Govor said on Sunday.
Under the sale
conditions, Govor agreed to retain employees for at least two years and fund
liabilities to suppliers, landlords, and utilities, McDonald’s said.
The price of the
transaction was not disclosed but in announcing its exit, McDonald’s said it
planned to take a one-time charge of $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion to write off
the investment. McDonald’s had employed 62,000 workers in Russia.
Govor, a licensee since
2015, has operated 25 restaurants in Siberia. He is co-founder of
NefteKhimService, a refining company, and a board member of a firm that owns
the Park Inn hotel and private clinics in Siberia.
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