Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at
8:20 pm
George Cohon has had few moments of doubt in his life — “press on,” he likes to say, quoting his mentor, McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc. But the night before the restaurant’s famous 1990 entrance on the world stage in Russia, Cohon was getting worried.
He managed to get some sleep in a Moscow hotel, but he tossed and turned, and awoke from fitful dreams. He had a terrible thought: “What if nobody comes?”
A few blocks from the Kremlin, the world’s media had set up shop to record the big event.
“We had huge platforms for the TV cameras,” Cohon, a seasonal Palm Beacher, recalls now. “Everybody was interested. It was a breakthrough.”
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Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at
10:22 pm
With provocative advertising videos featuring nude models at a sauna and a grumpy airport border guard, Burger King, one of the largest fast food corporations in the world, has established a presence in Russia by opening two restaurants in Moscow. The company, which operates more than 12,000 restaurants in 73 countries, is entering the Russian market as a part of its expansion strategy in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Claiming that Russia is “an exciting, active market with a vibrant economy,” Burger King’s executive management is quite optimistic about the company’s prospects. “We believe that our brand’s entry into Russia exemplifies our company’s commitment to diversifying our global restaurant portfolio and represents a milestone in our expansion strategy in the region,” said John Chidsey, the chairman and CEO of the Burger King Corporation. “More than 80 percent of our net restaurant growth is realized in international markets, and we are pleased with our new strategic market entry into Russia and its future expansion potential.”
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Monday, February 1st, 2010 at
6:33 pm
Viktor A. Semenov was growing lettuce on a collective farm outside Moscow in 1990 when a representative of McDonald’s stopped by. The company had just opened a restaurant. Could he sell it a few boxes of lettuce each week?
Mr. Semenov’s assistant turned it down. One restaurant was too small of an order.
“I said, ‘My friend! You see how many McDonald’s there are in the West?’ ” Mr. Semenov recalled recently. “I said, ‘Sell them lettuce at any price. It’s our new strategy.’ ”
With that, Mr. Semenov started a company that has all but cornered the market on packaged fresh vegetables in Russia.
With a buy-one-get-one-free deal on hamburgers and a traditional Russian accordion band, McDonald’s celebrated on Monday the 20th anniversary of the opening of its first store in the Soviet Union, a restaurant that drew long lines.
But the company celebrated a different milestone earlier this year by outsourcing the last product — hamburger buns — it had made at a proprietary factory outside Moscow called McComplex. It was built on the outskirts of Moscow before the chain opened its first restaurant. Nearly everywhere else, McDonald’s buys ingredients, rather than making its own. But in the Soviet Union, there simply were no private businesses to supply the 300 or so distinct ingredients needed by a McDonald’s outlet.
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