Romania is the only place where Amrest only has introduced only one brand so far, while on the other markets it has three to eight brands (either of its own or franchised).
Amrest has therefore established a dedicated company to run the restaurant division in this country. Each of the two brands, Burger King and Starbucks, will therefore be independently operated.
This is the second try for Burger King in Romania. The US fast-food chain Burger King, which has almost 18,000 restaurants throughout the world, initially arrived in 2008, the last year of economic boom, introduced by businessmen Eli Davidai and Marius Nasta. Four years later, the company that operated it went insolvent at the request of Liberty Center mall (itself taken over, following a foreclosure process, by the three banks that funded it – Alpha, Bancpost and Bank of Cyprus). It closed the last few restaurants it still had in Romania that year, too.
Amrest and Burger King signed a partnership deal for five markets in the region – Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria about a year ago. Romania is the only one of the five without a Burger King restaurant yet.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)