Jatia: Closure of 43 McDonald’s stores in NCR has no impact on brand
Closure of 43 McDonald's outlets in National Capital Region (NCR) is a local issue and it has not hurt the brand in other parts of India, according to Hardcastle Restaurants, the licensee of the US fast food chain for west and south India.
Terming the closure of stores as "a local issue" Hardcastle Restaurants ViceChairman Amit Jatia said the impact is just a blip in the short term.
On being asked whether the brand McDonald's has got a hit because of this, Jatia told PTI: "I do not think so. From west and south point of view, we are firing on all cylinders and things are good for us."
"The customers do not care as to who owns the restaurants. The customer is visiting a McDonald's from McDonald's and not necessarily knowing as who they are (franchise)," he added.
This is "obviously going" to have an impact on Delhi as the number of McDonald's stores has gone down, Jatia said.
"So obviously, they would use other brand instead," he added. According to Jatia: "We (McDonald's) have 420 restaurants in India and are opening 30 new restaurants a year. From a brand point of view, to cover 43 restaurants is just a matter of year. In my view, it’s a blip in the short term".
Last month, McDonald's had decided to shut down 43 of the total 55 outlets in NCR due to failure to renew eatinghouse licences.
As the dispute between Vikram Bakshi and McDonald's India Pvt Ltd (MIPL), both equal joint venture partners in Connaught Plaza Restaurants Ltd (CPRL) that is the licensee for north and east India regions, is over, the US fast food chain must have plans to bring their brand on track, Jatia said.
"As they resolve it, I am sure McDonald's has plans to do what they need to do to get the brand right again in north and east," he added.
But, on being asked whether he would go for Bakshi's stake in CPRL, if given a chance, he declined comment. "When the time comes, it’s for us to discuss that. At this point in time, we are hoping that McDonald's and CPRL quickly resolved their issues so that we can move forward. It’s not my place to comment on that," he added.
Hardcastle Restaurants has plans to invest ~700 crore in next three-five years to double the outlets of the fast food chain to 500 in the two regions from the present 260.