FDI McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd, which is developing the McDonald’s fast food chain in Ukraine, plans to open six new restaurants in 2024, Yulia Badritdinova, CEO of McDonald’s Ukraine, Czech Republic and Slovakia, said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
“In 2023, we expanded our network to 101 restaurants, 10 of which are new restaurants. We have opened a new format – on the highway (near Zhytomyr and in Oleksandriya). These establishments are not just on the highway, they are tied to the city where we can hire staff and whose residents are also our customers. We plan to open at least six restaurants in 2024,” she said.
Badritdinova also said that one of the chain’s goals for this year is to achieve representation in each of the regions.
“There are two regions where we are not yet represented – Zaporizhzhia and Chernivtsi, and I hope we will open restaurants this year,” she said.
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 March 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, 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 in FDI in McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd. is MCD Europe Limited (100%, London, UK).
Kyiv’s catering establishments will extend their working hours by one hour to 23:00, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram channel on Wednesday. According to him, the decision was made by the Kyiv Defense Council. It will come into force on September 1.
“Representatives of the National Restaurant Association of Ukraine addressed the city authorities with this request. The decision to restrict the operation of establishments until 22:00 was made when the curfew in the capital began at 23:00. Now it starts at 00:00. During a meeting with the city authorities, where they justified the feasibility of such a decision, entrepreneurs emphasized that extending the opening hours of establishments would help improve the economic situation in the capital, create additional jobs, and increase revenues from taxes, fees, and payments to budgets of all levels,” Klitschko wrote.
Italian restaurants across the UK are being forced to reduce the amount of tomatoes in their dishes, and in some cases to remove them altogether, due to a catastrophic rise in the price of this key product for many dishes from the Apennines.
According to the Federazione Italian Cuochi (FIC UK), the prices of tomatoes in the kingdom have risen from £5 a pack to £20 over the past year. The price of canned tomatoes has doubled from £15 to £30.
The president of the association Enzo Oliveri said that these were very difficult times for Italian restaurants. He said FIC UK members usually order tomatoes from Italy, Spain or Morocco, but now, with shortages everywhere, it’s getting harder to get tomatoes.
“I don’t see any glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel,” Oliveri said, adding that many establishments will likely have to close.
Oliveri said some restaurants are trying to move away from using the ingredient and are starting to offer diners “white” pizzas and pastas that have no tomatoes at all. Chefs are using ricotta or vegetables such as zucchini and eggplant as a base or for sauces.
For his part, Carmelo Carnevale, president of the Italian Culinary Consortium, said tomato prices have tripled in the past two weeks alone. Restaurants are still getting the product, but in completely different quantities.
There is a shortage of fruits and vegetables, especially tomatoes, in Britain. Supermarket shelves where they used to be located are now empty. Authorities cite weather in southern Europe and northern Africa as the cause, as well as high electricity prices in Britain and the Netherlands.
Florian Bollen, a German businessman and co-owner of craft breweries German Kraft Beer, Tarantino Family restaurant chain is coming under the control of Florian Bollen, the chain’s website says.
“From October 1, 2022, the Tarantino Family will come under the control of the German businessman and co-owner of craft breweries Florian Bollen. The new owner already owns the German Kraft Beer chain in London, plans to invest and develop the restaurant market in Kyiv,” the message says.
Bollen’s LinkedIn indicates that the businessman will take over the restaurant chain.
“The start of work in Kyiv will be a great confirmation of our belief in the victory of the Ukrainians and a good example for European investors,” he commented.
The Tarantino Family network in Kyiv includes restaurants “Rukkola”, “Murakami”, Villa Riviera and others, in total 28 objects. Among the owners of the network is Dmitry Fedotenkov.
As reported, the capital’s law enforcement officers are investigating the criminal activities of the owners of a well-known restaurant chain for the legalization and withdrawal of funds in the Russian Federation. According to the Kyiv prosecutor’s office, citizens of Ukraine – the owners of a large restaurant chain – retained control over the business in the territory of the aggressor country, transferring it to the management of a Russian restaurateur. The name of the network was not called, but later information spread in the media that it was about the Tarantino Family.
About 7,000 restaurants and cafes have closed in Ukraine since the start of the war, and more than 2,000 new establishments have opened, Olha Nasonova, co-founder of the National Restaurant Association of Ukraine, told Interfax-Ukraine.
“There are no exact statistics, because. it is simply not being carried out now, among these 7 thousand there are closed establishments and those about which there is no data (in the occupied territories, in shelling zones). The market shrank by about 25% compared to February 2022. In some regions, the market decline was more than 50% (Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Zaporozhye, Lugansk regions), in Kyiv, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk regions – a drop of up to 30%,” Nasonova said.
At the same time, according to her, positive dynamics is observed in the western regions. In Lviv and the region, the number of restaurants and cafes increased by approximately 30%, in the Transcarpathian, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk regions, an increase of approximately 20% was noted.
“Bythe beginning of summer, the market decline was more significant. But since June, restaurants began to open in Kyiv, as well as in the western regions, in general, more than 2 thousand establishments. The restaurant market developed most intensively in Lviv – more than 500 new establishments in the region since the beginning of the war. Of all the cities in western Ukraine, Lviv is the most cosmopolitan and the busiest,” Nasonova said.
According to her, among the summer openings of Lviv were establishments of “promoted” chains: Bao Casual (owner Taras Seredyuk), “Ostannya Barrikada” (Dmitry Borisov), a number of franchising establishments.
At the same time, the expert noted that it is incorrect to talk about the “relocation” of restaurants. “In fact, truly displaced, i.e. those who transported equipment, furniture, etc., are few. More often the restaurant turned out to be simply destroyed, or in the occupied territory, and there was simply nothing to take out. Therefore, new restaurants were opened,” Nasonova said.
In her opinion, restaurant investors began to consider cities in Western Ukraine as more profitable for starting a new business. As for expansion abroad, there are still few such examples. “It is planned to open Chernomorka, institutions of Borisov, Sukhomlin. Countries – Poland and Germany, but more Poland. There are more Ukrainians there, and the mentality of the Poles is closer to ours,” the expert said.
Established in 2021, the National Restaurant Association of Ukraine (NRAU) for May 2022 unites more than 50 members, 450 restaurants and cafes.
The McDonald’s fast food restaurant chain is introducing a phased plan to reopen some restaurants in Kyiv and western Ukraine over the next few months, the chain’s press service reported.
“After lengthy consultations and discussions with Ukrainian officials, suppliers and security professionals, and in response to the request of our employees to return to work, we have decided to introduce a phased plan to reopen some restaurants in Kyiv and western Ukraine, where other businesses have safely resumed work,” Paul Pomeroy, Senior Vice President of McDonald’s International Markets Business Unit, is quoted in the message.
Over the next few months, the company’s team with partners will be working to restore food supply chains, prepare restaurants to serve customers, return the team and employees to the working environment, and implement enhanced procedures and protocols to ensure the safety of workers and customers, he said.
Pomroy pointed out that the Ukrainian market team headed by Yulia Badritdinova is working on the restoration tasks.
In Ukraine, the first McDonald’s restaurant was opened in Kyiv on May 24, 1997. Over 25 years, the company has invested about $350 million, transferred UAH 10 billion in taxes to the state budget, and donated UAH 124 million to charity.
To date, the network has 109 restaurants in 24 cities across the country.
Earlier it was reported that the restaurants of the network in Ukraine were closed on February 24 for security reasons. The company maintains a team of more than 10 thousand people, while continuing to pay wages. In addition, more than 700 tons of products were donated for humanitarian needs. Together with the Ronald McDonald House Foundation, McDonald’s initiated and implemented humanitarian aid programs to support Ukrainians. Ukrainian families have already received more than 75 thousand food packages, 26 hospitals have received assistance with equipment and medicines.
The network is being developed by FDI “McDonald’s Ukraine Ltd.”
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, MCD Europe Limited (100%, London, UK) is a FDI participant.
