Three decades have passed since the opening of the first McDonald’s store in Moscow.
The restaurants McDonald’s open their doors again today at Moscow under new ownership and under the name ‘Tasty & tochka’ (‘Delicious – period and hyphen’ in free translation).
This is a new beginning for the fast food industry in Russia, after the American fast-food giant ‘turned its back’ on the country after the ‘special military operation’, as Moscow describes it, in Ukraine. Initially, 15 restaurants will reopen in and around the Russian capital.
The reopening of these restaurants, three decades after the opening of the first McDonald’s store in Moscow, is expected to be a test of whether russian economy can become self-sufficient and withstand the sanctions of the West.
Oleg Parev, CEO of Vkusno & tochka, said the company plans to reopen 200 restaurants in Russia by the end of June and a total of 850 by the end of the summer.
“Our goal is for our visitors not to notice a difference either in quality or in atmosphere”said Parev, in a press conference held at the site of the first McDonald’s restaurant that opened in Moscow in 1990.
Alexander Govor, the new owner of the restaurant chain, said the company has 51,000 employees. “My company asked me, first of all, to keep the employees, to give people a job. And this is what I am going to do “he added.
