In its 16 years in Romania, the company has invested over $110 million (EUR81.6 million) on the local market, according to company representatives.
“After in 2010 we opened three new restaurants, remodeled a further three and opened the first McCafe concept, part of the McDonald’s restaurant in Unirea Shopping Center, in 2011 we focused on remodeling restaurants and on coffee shop openings. Now we’re up to three McCafes, all of them in Bucharest. Moreover, we remodeled four restaurants, in Pitesti, Timisoara, Buzau and Bucharest,” says Alexandra Olaru, HR and communication manager of McDonald’s Romania.
Olaru does not give figures on the investments in these projects, but a few months ago Daniel Boaje, 40, the current manager for Romania of the restaurant chain, said the investment in such a coffee shop is around EUR200,000 and the remodeling costs RON1 million (EUR230,000) per restaurant.
According to Boaje, every year 3-5 restaurants are set to be remodeled. He also explained then that coffee shops could not be added to all McDonald’s restaurants because space was needed for the existing restaurants. This year the American chain has opened two new McCafes, both of them in Bucharest, bringing the number of Bucharest coffee shops to three.
Boaje came back to McDonald’s in March this year, after starting his career here in 1995 as manager trainee. He is now general manager, and replaced Karen Bishop.
Expansion resumes in 2012
The company has not opened any new restaurant this year, but will resume expansion next year. “For 2012 we will continue remodeling projects, we will have new openings and continue to implement the McCafe concept,” says Alexandra Olaru. Again, she does not offer figures.
At present the company has 63 restaurants, 27 of them in Bucharest, and the rest in 21 cities in the country. McDonald’s is the most extensive restaurant chain, followed by KFC, with 42 restaurants. KFC was the only one of the three “heavyweights” in fast food (McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King) to have opened restaurants this year, while the other players took a wait-and-see approach.
As for future openings, McDonald’s will focus on drive-through restaurants because “they allow us a full offer for all our customers, both for those who want to eat out and for those in transit, who don’t want to miss a meal.” At present, McDonald’s owns 32 drive-through restaurants, 16 freestanding ones and 15 in malls.
They come less often
The fast food chain has 140,000 customers daily, with each spending EUR2 on average, according to ZF calculations based on the company’s 2010 turnover – EUR99.5 million. Therefore, every year McDonald’s has over 51 million customers in Romania.
Alexandra Olaru does not provide data on this year’s turnover, saying, “2011 is not over yet.” In his latest statements, Boaje was hoping for a rise against 2010. He said at the time that although the economic context continued to be unpredictable, he did not think 2011 would be worse than 2010.
“Our customers have spent more or less the same amounts. But I have noticed a decline in the frequency of visits, which is specific to difficult economic times,” says Alexandra Olaru.
(EUR1=RON4.3564)
(English version by Daniela Stoican)