McDonald’s admitted Monday that it will sell its entire Russian business with the goal of permanently leaving the country where it has been in existence for more than 32 years, becoming the last major Western company to leave Russian soil since the invasion of Ukraine began.
The news was announced on Monday by the newspaper The The New York Times Which cites a letter that Chris Kempczynski, the company’s CEO, sent to the brand’s employees and suppliers. “This is a complex and unprecedented issue with dire consequences,” he wrote. “Some might argue that securing access to food and continuing to employ tens of thousands of citizens is the right thing to do. But it is impossible to ignore the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. It is impossible to imagine the golden arches (the yellow letters of the McDonald’s logo) representing the same hope and promise. Which led us to enter the Russian market 32 years ago. ”
Cold War stress relief symbol
The first McDonald’s – a symbol of the American way of life – opened in Russia in central Moscow more than three decades ago, on January 31, 1990, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was a powerful symbol for relieving Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union and was the first restaurant in Fast food An American will open in the Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991.
Photograph: Reuters
Images of long lines of customers waiting for hours and hours to taste a McDonald’s hamburger spread around the world and made history: on the first day, about 30 thousand people visited the restaurant. The opening of the first restaurants of the brand was the first opportunity for millions of Russians to taste Western food (and drinks), although the cost of a hamburger was several times the daily budget of many city dwellers.
Kempzinski noted that years before the official opening, the 1976 Olympics in Montreal opened the door for the company to enter Russian territory. It all started when the brand allowed the team of Olympic athletes in Russia to use the Big Mac Bus. “In the history of McDonald’s,” Kempinski wrote, “this has been one of our proudest and most exciting milestones.” “After nearly half a century of Cold War hostility, the image of the golden arches twinkling over Pushkin Square heralded many on both sides of the Iron Curtain the beginning of a new era.”
62 thousand employees
McDonald’s CEO said he is “exceptionally proud of the 62,000 employees” who work in the brand’s 850 restaurants in Russia as well as “hundreds of local suppliers”. “Your dedication and loyalty make this advertisement very difficult.”
to me The New York TimesMcDonald’s goal is to sell the business to a local buyer who will have to remove all references to the American brand from stores. McDonald’s said in a statement that “its priorities include ensuring that employees in Russia continue to be paid until operations close and retaining jobs with the potential buyer.”
Gennady Galperin/Reuters
In March, McDonald’s announced that It will temporarily close its operations in Russia, as do other restaurant chains such as Starbucks and Yum Brands, the parent company of KFC and Pizza Hut. Now, it is opting out of the entire Russian market. As a result of this measure, Russia will record a loss of between 1.2 and 1.4 billion dollars, according to the same note.
McDonald’s has more than 39,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries. Most of them are franchisees – only about 5% are owned and operated by the company. Brand spaces in Ukraine have also been closed, but the company says it continues to pay employees in full.
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