McDonald's opens two Kyiv restaurants (06/01/97)

McDonald's opens two Kyiv restaurants

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine finally got a McDonald's of its own on May 24 - two in fact - when the first restaurants bearing the golden arches opened in Kyiv.

People waited for more than two hours in lines that stretched to 150 meters at each locale to get a taste of what abroad is generally considered American cuisine.

They also drove up in cars to the drive-thru windows located at both restaurants. The wait there was shorter - only a half hour.

McDonald's, an icon of American pop culture, had been awaited for a long time. It opened in Moscow more than five years ago; in Miensk, Belarus, which is in far worse economic shape than Kyiv, almost two years ago. Openings in both cities were greeted with long lines that appeared daily for weeks. So when the doors opened here, people flocked to see what they had been missing.

Olena Kondratiuk, 35, who, with her daughter Natasha, 12, had been standing in line for more than an hour at the restaurant outside the Lukianivska metro station and still had about 75 meters to go to merely get in the restaurant doors, said her friends in Moscow had convinced her it would be worth it. "They told me that McDonald's hamburgers are far better than what we have tasted until now. We will see. I'm doing this for my daughter."

Natasha's reason was straightforward and simple, "I want a Big Mac," she said.

There were other reasons why people waited as well. Dima Povaliov, 26, said he and his wife decided to visit the restaurant as part of their Kyiv Day celebrations. "It's a holiday, and we wanted to do something different. It's about time we got a McDonald's. Miensk has had one for two years."

Managing Director of McDonald's Central Europe Tim Tighe did not have a good answer for why it took so long for the company to enter the Ukrainian market. (Albania is now the only former communist country that still does not have a McDonald's.) "We've been looking at Ukraine since 1992. It was a matter of establishing a development strategy. Ukraine's a big country. It took us a while," explained Mr. Tighe.

But the newly trained employees had little time to think about that. On the first day of business at the McDonald's at the Lukyanivska metro station 20,000 people were served from 6 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

In keeping with McDonald's policy, they were served food made domestically, to the extent possible. The hamburger patties were produced in Luhansk; some of the vegetables were grown in Crimea.

Managing Director for McDonald's-Ukraine Karl Fritz said that within several years he hopes that all the food will be made in Ukraine. "McDonald's believes in using local suppliers and in cooperating with them to achieve the highest quality. He said the challenge at the present is to establish a system of suppliers and, most importantly, quality control. "We will have food biologists and food technicians stationed here and with our suppliers [to assure the quality of the food]," said Mr. Tighe. "We will work with Ukrainian laboratories and with our laboratory in Frankfurt."

The restaurants are now being managed by foreigners, mostly Poles, until a Ukrainian management team is developed - which Mr. Tighe said will happen soon. "Mr. Fritz's major responsibility now is to provide and train local replacements for our management," said Mr. Tighe.

But his next immediate task will be to oversee the opening of a restaurant on Ukraine's main thoroughfare, the Khreschatyk, and in the city of Kharkiv, both scheduled to open in June, and three more restaurants that are due by the fall, which will give Ukraine a total of seven by the end of 1997.

Mr. Fritz explained that McDonald's is committed to investing $100 million in Ukraine by the 21st century in direct investments, which will provide another $30 million in indirect investments by suppliers. This should ultimately lead to the creation of 6,500 new jobs. Currently the company employs 743 Ukrainians who were trained outside Ukraine in the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland and Bulgaria. The workers make 240 hrv a month ( about $133), which is four times the minimum wage, explained the managing director of Ukraine.

Plans are also being developed for franchising McDonald's restaurants throughout Ukraine, although Mr. Fritz would not say when this might begin. He said that it would be available to all local entrepreneurs who meet McDonald's minimum financing and training requirements. He also said Ukrainian ownership of franchises would be a company priority.

Those waiting on the street to try their first Big Mac were less concerned with future plans than with immediate prices. To assuage people's fears that the average Ukrainian could not afford the cost of a McDonald's meal, the company prominently displayed menus with prices on boards outside the restaurant and handed out similar pieces of paper. The cost? Much cheaper than in the States. For 4.5 hrv (about $2.40) you can enjoy a Big Mac, large fries and a Coke.

But then a packet of ketchup, free in most countries, costs about 17 cents.

And, yes, for better or for worse, the food tastes exactly the same.

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