Former McDonald's restaurants in Kazakhstan re-open under new brand, I'm

ALMATY. Nov 23 (Interfax) - Former locations of the American McDonald's fast food chain began operating in Kazakhstan on Thursday under the new brand, I'm.

"The transition process to our chain's new brand was not an easy one for the company or the entire team. The rebranding was accompanied by a comprehensive restructuring of the entire organization, which required time and significant resources," General Director of Food Solutions KZ LLP (which managed the McDonald's restaurant chain in Kazakhstan) Aset Mashanov said at the new chain's opening presentation on Thursday in Almaty.

The main task was to ensure the uninterrupted operation of all restaurants in parallel with the development and transition to the new brand, he said.

As reported, the American McDonald's Corp. left the country after six years in the Kazakh market. Bloomberg said that the decision was made because the corporation prohibited the Kazakh franchisee from purchasing meat from Russian suppliers and could not find a suitable replacement for Russian meat in Kazakhstan.

Food Solutions KZ announced the termination of cooperation with the American brand Food Solutions at the beginning of 2023. The chain consisted of 24 restaurants in Almaty, Astana, Atyrau, Aktyubinsk, Kostanay and Karaganda.

Kazakhstan's McDonald's restaurants suspended operations in November 2022 due to the above-mentioned supply problems. The situation was made more complex by events surrounding the owner of the McDonald's franchise in Kazakhstan, Kairat Boranbayev, who was arrested in March last year for large-scale theft of funds from state-owned QazaqGaz (formerly KazTransGas) associated with gas shipments. In September of this year, a court sentenced him to six years in prison with confiscation of property; in October, the court granted Boranbayev's petition to replace the unserved part of his sentence with house arrest, as he had fully compensated the state for financial damages.