McDonald opens new outlets in the East and Northeastern states

Kolkata, Mar 8 (UNI) McDonald's India, world's most popular brand in the quick service restaurant (QSR) industry, today made its foray into the eastern region by opening its first family restaurant in this city.

Situated in an area of nearly 4000 sq ft in the heart of the city, the restaurant has enough space to serve 150 customers at a time. With the opening of this restaurant, the number of McDonald's restaurants in India rose to 108, including in 63 Northern Region and 45 in Southern and Western Regions.

Speaking to reporters following the opening of the first of the proposed four such outlests in the city Mr Vikram Bakshi, Joint venture partner and Managing Director, McDonald's India (North&East), said "It's major milestone for us and McDonald's is proud to be a part of the rich heritage and culture of Kolkata".

Referring to his future plans Mr Bakshi said McDonald planned to invest around Rs.100 crore to open some 15 to 20 restaurants in the Eastern and Northeastern regions within the next three to four years.

Seventy per cent of these investments will be towards the expansion of the brand's presence and introduction of new formats, while the remaining 30 per cent would be spent on back-end operations, he said.

" McDonald has also set up a regional distribution centre in this City of Joy specifically to cater to the demands in and around Kolkata", Mr Bakshi said replying to a query adding that the company was in the process of identifying key locations in a 500-700 km radius of the city for further expansion in the region.

The expansion besides creating employment opportunities in the state would generate enough scopes for local sourcing of certain agricultural products via commercial farming, he said.

Incidentally, McDonald is the world's largest food service retailer with more than 30,000 restaurants serving over 50 million customers each day in over 119 countries. In India, over 300,000 customers visit McDonald's family restaurents every day.

UNI