Belarusian president calls on Belarusian manufacturers to take niche left by McDonald's
MINSK. Nov 18 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko encouraged local manufacturers to take the niche of McDonald's amid the company's exit from the country.
"I always encourage you: eat, consume domestic products, and don't grab things from overseas. It especially applies to young people, and probably middle-aged people, who have started saying 'Oh, McDonald's is leaving.' I think thank God it is leaving! But only the place, where McDonald's is, where our people, our specialists are working, where our products are consumed, should be taken by Belarusians," Lukashenko was quoted as saying by his press service in Minsk on Friday at a ceremony for honoring people who excelled in production in the agro-industrial sector.
"Remember, no one else. We should do what this McDonald's once did, if someone needs it, and even better. Can't our people cut a bun into half and put a piece of meat, potatoes and salad in it? My God, I don't know who consumes it," Lukashenko said.
The Belarusian McDonald's chain will start working under the Russian brand Vkusno - i Tochka on November 22.
Twenty-five McDonald's restaurants operated in six cities in Belarus. They served more than ten million people annually.
McDonald's Corp. closed its restaurants in Russia on March 14 and announced its exit of the Russian market on May 16. The new owner of the McDonald's business in Russia is Kemerovo businessman Alexander Govor, who had run 25 restaurants in Siberia under franchising agreements since 2015. Its company Klub-Otel LLC received 100% of the shares in Sistema PBO LLC (former McDonald's LLC, the main operational entity of the chain in Russia) and DVRP LLC (McDonald's developed the chain in the Far East through that company). On June 12, the new owner of the chain in Russia started opening restaurants under the brand Vkusno - i Tochka.
Vkusno - i Tochka is represented in Russia in 62 regions. More than 830 restaurants of the chain are operating currently.