The latest blow to Russia’s fast food industry is the exit of Wendy’s, America’s third-largest hamburger restaurant chain, which will close eight restaurants and leave Russia altogether after only 3 years.
The country’s eight Wendy’s outlets are being shut down, Bob
Bertini, a spokesman for the company told Bloomberg News.
The chain is famous for its square-shaped hamburgers and entered
the Russian market in 2011 and planned to open 180 restaurants over a 10-year
period, but plans went south once there was a change in the
company’s franchise ownership.
According to the spokesman, Wenrus Restaurant Group has already
closed four restaurants and will close the remaining four in the
coming weeks. There was a change in Wenrus’s ownership and
management in the past year, and the decision to leave the
country had nothing to do with politics, Bertini stressed.
“Unfortunately, the new leadership of Wenrus has not
expressed interest in growing the Wendy’s business in Russia, nor
shown they have the resources to successfully operate the
existing restaurants on a long-term basis,” Bertini told
Bloomberg.
“As a result, we have decided not to continue business in
Russia at this time,” Bertini said.
Ohio-based Wendy’s first opened in the US in 1969, and has
branded itself as a wholesome traditional-style restaurant that
offers its diners customizable burgers with the slogan
‘Quality Is Our
Recipe’.
Several American fast food chains have expanded business into
Russia since 1990, when McDonald’s opened its first restaurant,
and tens and thousands queued to get a taste, the most in the
restaurant’s history.
Political tension between Russia and the West over Ukraine has
caused a shake-up in the former-Soviet fast food industry.
McDonald’s was hit with an investigation on Monday by Russia’s
consumer watchdog, which claims some of the cheese used at the
restaurants may contain antibiotics. The cheese is
imported from Germany and the Czech Republic.
Last week, it faced a lawsuit over misrepresenting caloric and
nutritional value in some of its cheeseburgers, Filet-O-Fish,
milkshakes, and ice cream products.
In April, McDonald’s announced that it was closing three
restaurants in Crimea, which were later replaced by competitor
Burger King and a new player, Rusburger, a small Russian-based
fast food chain which presents itself as ‘anti-McDonald’s’,
serving juice instead of soda and claims to source all meat
locally. McDonald’s has over 400 restaurants in Russia, and plans
to expand and open at least 100 more in lesser-developed markets,
across the Ural mountains in Siberia and the Far East.
Several American chains successful operate in Russia- from KFC
and T.G.I. Friday’s to Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks Coffee.
Article source: http://rt.com/business/176356-wendys-leaves-russia-bloomberg/
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