FDI McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd, which is developing the McDonald’s fast food chain in Ukraine, plans to develop partnership programs with gas station chains, Vitaliy Stefurak, McDonald’s Ukraine Development Director, said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
As reported, in the summer of 2023, McDonald’s opened its first restaurant near the highway, near Zhytomyr, on the M-06 Kyiv-Chop highway, and the restaurant is located next to a WOG gas station.
“This is an example of a partnership project, the essence of which is that at a certain point on the highway, all the necessary range of services needed by motorists and travelers is formed. The same goes for the opportunity to eat. This is not competition, but a complement to each other and a choice for visitors. This year, we plan to implement such projects in regional centers, cities with a population of over a million or their satellites. For the next few years, we continue to consider locations to open McDonald’s restaurants in conjunction with gas stations on key highways,” said Stefurak.
At the same time, he emphasized that none of the key players or gas station chains has an exclusive right to work with McDonald’s.
“We focus exclusively on the location and weigh how well it meets our requirements. Of course, first of all, we work with key players. This is WOG, which you mentioned, and we are already cooperating with KLO. And now we are building our restaurant next to the OKKO filling station in Odesa, but this restaurant will be located in the city, not on the highway,” said Stefurak.
Such projects are not experimental, but part of a well-developed strategy that determines where it would be appropriate to build a new McDonald’s.
“We are open to cooperation with various partners, because the location has always been and remains the key for us,” said the chain’s development director.
The first McDonald’s restaurant in Ukraine was opened on May 24, 1997 in Kyiv.
As reported, on September 20, 2022, McDonald’s began a phased opening of restaurants in Ukraine. By February 24 of the same year, the chain had 109 restaurants in 24 cities across the country. As of spring 2024, there are 101 restaurants in operation.
At the end of 2023, it increased its revenue by 3.9 times compared to the previous year, up to UAH 12.9 billion, according to Opendatabot.
According to the financial results for 2023, the company’s net profit amounted to UAH 1.29 billion, compared to a loss of UAH 2 billion in 2022.
The value of McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd’s assets amounted to UAH 5.54 billion, while the amount of liabilities increased 2.3 times to UAH 829.7 million.
The number of employees in 2023 increased by 7% to 9,614.
McDonald’s in Ukraine is a founding partner and the largest corporate partner of the Ronald McDonald House Foundation in Ukraine.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the participant of FDI in McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd. is MCD Europe Limited (100%, London, UK).
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine at its plenary session on Wednesday adopted by 255 votes bill No. 7668-d on the return of excise taxes on motor fuel.
According to the head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Daniil Getmantsev, the excise rate for gasoline and diesel is EUR100 (hereinafter per 1000 liters), for liquefied gas, butane and isobutane – EUR52, for alternative motor fuel and biodiesel – EUR100.
At the same time, a zero excise rate for fuel has been set for the Ministry of Defense. “This benefit will be valid exclusively for the Ministry of Defense during the period of martial law and the state of emergency,” said Yaroslav Zheleznyak, People’s Deputy (Voice faction), on the Telegram channel.
According to him, the law comes into force one day after its publication, so the return of excises should be expected at the end of September.
VAT for all types of fuel remains at 7%.
As reported, in March 2022, the Rada canceled excise taxes on motor fuel.
Since the beginning of the war, the number of gas stations in Ukraine has decreased three times, and private fuel consumption has decreased by about the same amount, said Sergey Kuyun, director of the A-95 consulting group.
“According to our estimates, a third of the total number of gas stations is operating, this is about 2.5 thousand stations, before the war there were 7.5 thousand. Of course, the main reason is the lack of fuel. Consumption has also decreased three times compared to the pre-war level,” he said at a closed briefing at the Media Center in Lviv on Monday.
At the same time, Kuyun noted that traders or network owners are forced to provide their most strategic and powerful facilities, located mainly in regional centers or on main routes, while peripheral stations are forced to stand idle, although there are also a lot of consumers there.
According to him, the shortage of fuel became especially aggravated after the shutdown of the Kremenchug Oil Refinery as a result of a missile attack by Russian invaders.
“Many companies, especially in central, eastern and southern Ukraine, have lost their main source of supply for themselves. The only way out for them is to independently import through the western border. This is mainly about the fact that small regional companies go abroad with fuel trucks and bring fuel,” he explained.
At the same time, the state’s restriction of fuel prices and the high cost of delivery does not allow to activate this type of supply, the expert believes.
“This supply is very long, only 800 km can be traveled to the border. And the cost of this fuel is higher than the prices set by the government. Accordingly, they do not have any economy or at least a break-even level, and, accordingly, there is no motivation,” he said. director of “A-95”.
In his opinion, the way out of the situation could be a temporary waiver of state regulation, so that as many companies as possible could leave and bring fuel from abroad. However, there are no signals yet that the government is ready to take such steps, he noted.
“There are certain debates going on, let’s hope that we will wait for the right and necessary decisions,” Kuyun said, adding that the government is worried about prices in this case.
At the same time, he called responsible the decision to significantly reduce taxes on fuel, although already insufficient. “In fact, it abolished these taxes altogether, a very necessary step, but then we had a working Kremenchuk Oil Refinery. Now the situation has changed and requires new steps to fill the market. There can be no simple solutions in this situation,” the expert expressed his conviction.
As reported, in March, the Verkhovna Rada, at the initiative of the government, zeroed out the excise tax on fuel and lowered the VAT rate to 7% from 20%.
According to the government’s decision, the price of “premium fuel” cannot be more than 5% higher than the price of conventional fuel. As of the end of March, taking into account the marginal trade margins, the maximum price for “regular” gasoline for sale through a network of filling stations should not exceed UAH 33.53/liter, for “regular” diesel fuel – UAH 37.43/liter.
On April 2, the Russian invaders destroyed the infrastructure of the Kremenchug oil refinery with their shelling, and it stopped working.
