Hardcastle Restaurants Private Ltd (HRPL), which runs McDonald's outlets in West and South India, has been appointed as development licensee of McDonald's. The company said it will invest Rs 500 crore over the next three years to double the number of restaurants in operation.

“In the immediate future, we will be investing Rs 500 crore and doubling our presence over the next three years in India. We now join other McDonald's businesses such as Latin America where the Development Licensee operates over 1,700 restaurants with sales of over $3 billion,” Mr Amit Jatia, Vice-Chairman of McDonald's (South & West), said in a statement.

According to Mr Peter Rodwell, Division President — Greater Asia and Middle East Division, “McDonald's has varying franchise structures that are applied based on changing/ differing markets/circumstances and stages of brand development. Today, as the world's largest quick service restaurant chain we have over 32,500 restaurants in 117 countries out of which over 26,300 are operated by varying franchise models, including 50 Development Licensed countries.”

The company said it is a “profitable business” after successive years of being cash positive. Same-store sales have seen double-digit growth continuously for the last 6 years and the company has seen a total compounded growth of 35 per cent in revenues.

McDonald's India opened 33 new restaurants in 2010 of which two-third of the new restaurants were in South and West India through HRPL. In 2011, HRPL now plans to open another 30 McDonald's stores in South and West. This will be the highest opening in the last 15 years.

The DL structure has been employed in over 50 countries worldwide for over 20 years.

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