The American fast food giant has been renamed “Tasty and Dot”, which means “Tasty and that’s it”.
The company, in which Oleg Paroev is the general director, plans to open 200 branches by the end of June and all branches by the end of the summer, according to a press release.
“If you remember, in May McDonald’s announced that they were removing their business from Russia. I am very proud that I was chosen to continue to develop this business. This means that the company sees me as a person who fully shares all the principles of business and the values of McDonald’s, “said Speech at a press conference.
“I will not hide the fact that I am an ambitious person, so I will not only open all 850 restaurants, but I will also develop new ones,” he said.
According to a press release, 62,000 former McDonald’s employees have also been detained.
The rebranding coincided with Russia Day, a holiday that marks the country’s independence. It took place at the same location on Pushkin Square in Moscow, where McDonald’s opened its first Russian restaurant on January 31, 1990. On the first day, 30,000 people were served – McDonald’s record for the opening day, the CBC reported at the time. The place even had to stay open for hours later than planned due to the crowds. About 630 employees were selected from 27,000 candidates, according to a 1990 Washington Post article.
“About 32 years ago … there were a lot of people in Pushkinskaya Square when the first McDonald’s franchise was opened here in Russia. This caused a lot of madness. I think the mania will be just as great with this new restaurant chain, with a new owner, a real entrepreneur, “said Alexei Alekseevich, head of Moscow’s Ministry of Trade, at a news conference on Sunday.
Subsequently, McDonald’s expanded its reach in the country and by the beginning of March there were about 850 jobs in Russia.
However, the chain decided to leave the country and sell its business in Russia, according to many other Western companies, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
McDonald’s has accepted a fee of almost $ 1.4 billion after the sale of Govor, Reuters reported. Paroev said other franchises could operate under the new brand, but the traditional McDonald’s brand will leave the country. Russia’s antitrust agency said the chain could choose to buy its restaurants in Russia back within 15 years, although many terms for selling Govor are still unclear, Reuters reported.
“If the opening of McDonald’s in 1990 marked the beginning of a new era in Soviet life, an era of greater freedoms, the company’s current exit represents not only the closure of business but of society as a whole,” Dara Goldstein, Willcox B. and Harriet M. Addit, an honorary professor of Russian at Williams College, noted at the time.
The company’s new logo, shared with CNN, features the “main symbols of the restaurant” – what should be two sticks of french fries and an orange burger. The green background, the press center told CNN, symbolizes “the quality of products and services that guests are accustomed to.”
Consumers flocked to what was once a leading McDonald’s in downtown Moscow on Sunday, Reuters reported.
Although Vkusno & Tochka does not offer some of the most recognizable products on McDonald’s menu – including the Big Mac – customers can still buy a double cheeseburger for 129 rubles (about $ 2.30), compared to about 160 at McDonald’s. and a fish burger for 169 rubles, instead of about 190 rubles before.
Despite some changes in the menu, the composition of the burgers and the equipment of McDonald’s remains the same, said Alexander Merkulov, quality manager at the new company.
“The taste remained the same,” said 15-year-old Sergei, a customer packed in a chicken burger and french fries. “The car is different, but there’s really no change in the burger.”
CNN’s Daniel Wiener-Bronner, Chris Liakos and Anna Chernova contributed to this report.
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