Iron curtain 169 Mcdonald s. The chain of fast-food american is going to close 40% of its restaurants by putting an end to its franchise agreement with a local partner, it announced Monday. All Mcdonald’s restaurants held by CPRL will have to cease their activity within fifteen days. The signs of the rest of the country, managed through other subsidiaries, will not be affected.
“We were forced (to put an end to the partnership, editor’s note) because CPRL has materially breached the terms of the franchise agreements related to the restaurants concerned,” said Mcdonald’s India in a press release.
The majority of the Mcdonald’s capital New Delhi already had their iron curtain shot for two months, putting the day to the more than 1,500 employees in technical unemployment, because of the battle between the giant of the fast food and its indian partner Vikram Bakshi. These last were associated with a 50: 50 joint venture Connaught Plaza Restaurants Private Limited (CPRL), which manages the restaurants of the famous sign in the north and east of India.
This separation puts an end to a relationship, acrimonious with Vikram Bakshi, Mcdonald’s had been evicted from the post of executive director of CPRL in 2013. The latter had been released by court decision. “This is a new behavior, demeaning, dishonest, and tyrannical on the part of Mcdonald’s,” said Vikram Bakshi to the agency Press Trust of India. The interested party has indicated that his company intended to contest the end of the franchise agreement before the courts.
The officers of CPRL was not attainable in the immediate future by the AFP.
Domination of chains of pizza
The giant of the fast food restaurants now will be put to the search for a new local contact, but this divorce is clouding its future in a market catering in indian booming but highly competitive. Mcdonald’s India operated nearly 400 restaurants in 65 cities of India. The country had in 2015, approximately 2,700 of brands of fast food.
Regarded as “trend” in the early 2000s, Mcdonald’s and its burgers have been sold in recent years the ground in the face of competition from other giant american burger (Burger King or even Wendy’s has opened restaurants), but especially in the chain pizzas like Pizza Hut or Domino’s Pizza. Behind it four years ago, and the latter now holds 1.125 restaurants in 264 towns and cities in India and 16% share of the market of fast food, according to data Euromonitor, dating back to may 2016, which is two times more than Mcdonald’s, which went from 10.9% in 2012 to 7.4%. Drawn by low prices and discounts of the leading companies in the industry, the market for online pizza has benefited from a growth of 52% in 2015, noted in the past year, Shabori Das, a senior research analyst at Eurominot, interviewed by the newspaper indian Econonomic Times.
With a population of 1.25 billion people and a growing middle class, India is a country which is dreaming of the big food brands in the world. The fast food sector is currently valued at $ 1.5 billion and growing at about 15% per year, according to data from the consulting company india Technopak.
(L. P. with AFP)