McDonald’s reopens in Russia with new owner, name, logo and menu

With a new owner, a new logo, a new name, and a new menu, McDonald’s has reopened its doors in Russia.

Russian businessman Alexander Govor bought up all of the closed-down McDonald’s stores in Russia after the American burger giant exited the country in protest over the invasion of Ukraine. Today, Sunday, June 12, Mr Govor saw the historic reopening of 15 of those restaurants in and around Moscow.

A new owner, a transformed logo, a new menu, and a new brand name were all part of this occasion as the doors opened once again for business. The new logo is ‘Vkusno & tochka’, which translated into English means, ‘Tasty and that’s it’. Each restaurant features the new logo of a circle with two lines, which represents a burger and chips.

Alexander Govor had agreed on a deal with McDonald’s to purchase all 847 outlets, adding them to the 25 he already owned in Siberia. As part of the process, he guaranteed that all 62,000 employees would be kept in work for a minimum of two years, according to mirror.co.uk.

As Moscow cops patrolled the streets, the Daily Telegraph reported that the famous first flagship restaurant opened by McDonald’s in the city’s Pushkin Square 30 years ago, was doing huge business, with queues of people lining up to order their meals.

According to Reuters, they reported a spokesperson for the new chain informing them that all the ingredients would be identical, and all the same equipment was being used to prepare the meals. The only thing not confirmed is whether the recipes are the same.

Apparently, there are no ‘Big Macs’ or ‘Quarter Pounders’, with the menu offering ‘Grandee’, ‘Chicken Premier’, or the ‘Fish burger’ instead. In what appears to have been a rushed opening, it is reported that old sachets of McDonald’s tomato ketchup were being served, with the original logos blacked out, while meals were packaged in plain white wrappers, and plain brown takeaway bags and cups.

“Our goal is that our guests do not notice a difference either in quality or ambience”, Oleg Paroev, the CEO told Sky News. He also said that while the company would try to keep prices stable, there was no guarantee that they could rise in the near future.

Around 200 restaurants are expected to be open by the end of June, with the remainder open by the end of summer claimed the boss. Mr Govor has yet to replace Coca-Cola as the drinks supplier after it also boycotted Russia and pulled out.

It would appear that one diner was not impressed after he was escorted out of the press conference for holding up a sign demanding ‘Bring back the Big Mac’, as you can see in the video below:

The Russian fast-food brand that will take over most of McDonald’s business in the country has been announced: it’s called ‘Vkusno i Tochka’, which roughly translates as ‘yummy full stop’ or ‘tasty and that’s it’. pic.twitter.com/gN08mnRjDL

— Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) June 12, 2022

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