McDonald’s reopens some restaurants in Delhi-NCR
NEW DELHI: American fast food chain McDonald’s has reopened 13 restaurants in parts of Delhi and Gurugram, nearly ten days after it announced a change in ownership for its business in north and east India, that saw the burger chain temporarily shutter over 160 of its outlets.
In a statement released on Sunday, Connaught Plaza Restaurants Pvt. Ltd (CPRL), now wholly owned by McDonald’s, said that the reopened restaurants will “see refreshed menu boards, merchandising and packaging…”
The restaurants opened at 11am to the public on Sunday.
CPRL said that it will gradually begin opening other restaurants over the coming days and weeks after completion of work at these outlets. However, some of the services such as birthday parties and Happy Meals will for now not be available at these restaurants. Moreover, these restaurants will also not be running any delivery services. “We are also not able to offer delivery until we have more restaurants up and running to ensure we can service our usual delivery area,” the company added in the statement.
The newly opened restaurants were shuttered to focus on restaurant and equipment maintenance, technology audits, menu and marketing updates and employee training.
It has also made changes to its menu, discontinuing some items. “To ensure a more consistent McDonald’s India experience across the different regions, we have permanently removed some of the least popular items including the McAloo Wrap, Chicken McGrill, Egg Wrap, Grilled Chicken Wrap, and Maaza beverage. The rest of the menu remains the same,” Barry Sum, director of corporate relations for Asia at McDonald’s said in an e-mail.
The reopening of stores comes after the chain recently ended a six-year-long legal dispute with its local partner for north and east India, Vikram Bakshi with whom the company jointly owned Connaught Plaza Restaurants Ltd that ran the McDonald’s business here.
On May 9, the American fastfood chain announced that it had bought out Vikram Bakshi’s 50% stake in their joint venture CPRL, making it a wholly owned subsidiary McDonald’s India Private Limited (MIPL) and its affiliate McDonald’s Global Markets LLC. Bakshi who was the burger chain’s local partner for north and east India starting the mid90s was ousted as its managing director in 2013 that led to the start of a legal dispute between the two. The two, however, agreed to resolve their differences after reaching an out-of-court settlement earlier this month that saw the McDonald’s fully take control of operations at CPRL.
CPRL SAID THAT IT WILL GRADUALLY BEGIN OPENING OTHER RESTAURANTS OVER THE COMING DAYS AND WEEKS