Following the disturbances caused by the Ukrainian crisis, McDonald’s Corp. intends to leave Kazakhstan.
Source: B92
Ilustracija, Foto: EPA-EFE/RAMINDER PAL SINGH
The main reason for this move is that the Central Asian country was left without a replacement for Russian meat supplies, according to American Bloomberg.
The world’s largest fast-food chain will pull out of the country of 20 million people bordering Russia after just six years.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year upended global supply chains and hit the former Soviet republic as well.
Specifically, the reason for this decision was interruptions in the supply of meat from Russia due to a specific context of its special military operation, local geopolitical sources report.
While Kazakh firms are not subject to sanctions against Moscow, McDonald’s has banned local franchises from buying meat from Russian suppliers, Bloomberg’s sources said.
It is also clarified that Kazakh companies could not buy meat from domestic or European suppliers, because higher prices and costs of transporting goods across the country would mean a loss-making business.
In November last year, McDonald’s franchise in Kazakhstan (Food Solutions KZ LLP) announced on its website and social media that it was suspending all of its restaurants from November 18 due to local supply constraints. The company assured that it is making every effort to open as soon as possible, promising to announce the reopening time of the restaurant at a later date.
The owner of the McDonald’s franchise in Kazakhstan is the well-known businessman Kairat Boranbaev, who in 2021, according to Forbes Kazakhstan, with a fortune of 590 million dollars, took the 14th place on the list of the richest businessmen in that country. At the end of December 2022, he appeared before the court in Astana for fraud in the gas sector.
McDonald’s suspended its business activities in Russia in March 2022 and later decided to completely exit the Russian market and sell the business. The buyer was Aleksandar Govor, the owner of the license of the company, who now manages the former McDonald’s restaurants under the new name Vkusno i toka
