NOVOSIBIRSK, April 09. /ITAR-TASS/. American fast food network Burger King plans to open a number of restaurants in Russia’s newly-incorporated republic of Crimea, as its major competitor McDonald’s company has ceased serving the region, Dmitry Medoviy, the CEO of the Russian franchisee Burger King Russia, told ITAR-TASS on Wednesday.
“We are planning to introduce our services in Crimea, though, I can neither tell you when exactly it will happen, nor how many restaurants there will be”, he said. Today the fast food network has no restaurants in the region yet.
Earlier this month the company’s major rival McDonald’s made a decision to temporarily cease operating in the Crimean cities of Simferopol, Yalta and the federal city of Sevastopol due to financial constraints. Its employees were advised to apply for jobs at any other McDonald’s restaurant, located in Ukraine, with the condition that their job position and salary will remain the same.
The Burger King network, founded in the US in 1954, now occupies second position among burger-serving restaurants after McDonald’s. The former has over 12,600 restaurants in 86 countries, with 200 of them located in Russia and three, in the Russian Black Sea pot city of Novosibirsk.