“This year, we will double investments compared with the previous year. We will open seven McCafés countrywide. At the same time, five restaurants will be remodeled. We are looking at Brasov, Timisoara, most likely outside Bucharest,” McDonald’s Romania general manager, Daniel Boaje, said in a press conference Tuesday.
In 2015, McDonald’s Romania reported a turnover of EUR110 million.
Malta-based company Premier Capital, which has recently bought McDonald’s Romania operations, wants to reach 150 restaurants on its markets in 2018.
Premier Capital will pay $65.33 million for the acquisition of McDonald’s Romania operations, in a transaction that includes all the 67 McDonald’s restaurants, the 19 McCafé coffee shops and McDonald’s local franchise in Romania.
McDonald’s announced Monday that the transfer to a development partnership structure is reflecting the brand’s general strategy, which includes the long-term objective to operate 95% of the restaurants at global level under franchise.
McDonald’s has also applied this business model (switching from direct operation to franchisees) on several markets in Eastern Europe, such as the Republic of Moldova, Bulgaria, Georgia or Azerbaijan.
Thus, McDonald’s Romania adds 67 restaurants in 21 cities with a team of 4,000 people to Premier Capital’s portfolio.
To Malta’s Premier Capital, Romania becomes the sixth market where it holds the McDonald’s franchise and also the largest, given the 67 restaurants. It has about 60 restaurants on its five other markets together, according to its website.
Premier Capital is also developmental licencee for McDonald’s in Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Greece.
McDonald’s was established in Romania in 1995 and its restaurants serve more than 65 million customers every year. It is the only foreign company in this industry that arrived directly, while rivals KFC, Pizza Hut and Subway chose the franchise route.