World meat industry news

The Russian fast food chain that has acquired the McDonald’s outlets in the country has chosen a new logo. It depicts the main symbols of the restaurant: two sticks of yellow fries and a yellow-orange burger. The press service added that the logo is located on a green background, which symbolizes the quality of products and service that guests are used to. Today, the network is launching a new advertising campaign that will use this logo.

The legal issue has seen the existing McDonalds Russia LLC be acquired and renamed as PBO Systems. The working name for the new brand has not yet been chosen, with discussions underway with both McDonalds and Rospatent, the Russian trademark and patent agency. Eight names are under consideration, with ‘My Burger’ probably the most likely to be used.

The packaging has also been rebranded, with food boxes becoming more restrained in color design, and without decorative elements. Well-known names of dishes from the previous menu will be changed as McDonalds owns the rights to names such as ‘McFlurry’ and so on.  This means that items such as the Royal will be renamed Grand, Royal de Lux into Grand de Lux, Filet-o-fish into Fish Burger, and so on. PBO Systems will launch online sales under the new brand on June 12, with the application in the AppStore called “My Burger”. A further 200 stores will reopen by the end of June and the remaining 600+ over the coming months. Under McDonalds, the chain employed 62,000 Russians. Most will now return to work, while the newco is also advertising for new workers.

The previous McCafe and McKioski brands, as well as the delivery service, are still suspended and the launch of these services will be announced later.

The staff uniforms have also changed. Women will be required to wear a white polka dot dress and black apron, while men will be required to wear a white shirt with a similar print and black trousers.

The exercise is of interest on several levels, the extent of inclusive branding that McDonalds has put into place, with everything from uniforms, packaging, recipes and the overall theme all being protected and requiring replacement. The other factor is how fast the turnover of the acquisition process has been, with the legal issues on both sides being worked out extremely fast. The raising of capital and the decision-making on the Russian side as concerns a complete change of corporate identity have also been super-rapid. All this has taken place within a period of just two and a half months.

McDonalds have not released details of the sale price, or the terms of the deal. However, they have previously stated that shuttering the Russian operations cost the company about US$55 million a month, suggesting that the entire McDonalds Russia annual income was about US$660 million per annum. The next steps for what will probably be named ‘My Burger’ will be to consolidate their existing operations, maintain previous standards, and look for additional expansion opportunities. This is likely in time to ‘Russify’ the menu leading to the gradual evolution of a product and brand that is distinctly Russian as opposed to American.

It will also be interesting to note if ‘My Burger’ will over time expand overseas to markets in Central Asia – McDonalds is absent from several of these countries, including Uzbekistan as well as Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, all nations now part of the Central Asian connectivity between Russia and China. Then there is potential competition – countries where McDonalds also has a presence in Kazakhstan.

For McDonalds, walking away from a half billion dollar a year business must have been tough. For PBO Systems, they have inherited a great regional opportunity.