Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has called on McDonald’s, Russia’s most popular fast food chain, to open outlets in the Far East.
“We have no McDonald’s in Vladivostok and I would like it to appear there,” Shuvalov said in Kazan in the Volga Republic of Tatarstan on Wednesday, during a sponsorship agreement signing ceremony for the 2013 Student Games.
McDonald’s, along with Coca-Cola, Hyundai, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Russian mobile phone operator MegaFon and Ak Bars bank will sponsor the Student Games to be held in Kazan in the summer of 2013.
Shuvalov said he had sent his representative to McDonald’s headquarters to try “by all means” to persuade the fast food giant to open outlets in Vladivostok.
McDonald’s Vice-President Viktor Eidemiller has said that McDonald’s first planned to develop in West Siberia and only then expand to the Russian Far East due to logistical difficulties.
“As you move along the Omsk-Novosibirsk-Vladivostok chain, this will take a lot of time and someone else might capture your market,” Shuvalov replied.
First McDonald's outlet in Russia opened in Moscow on January 31, 1990, and served 30,000 during the first day of operations, setting a world record. McDonalds currently have about 310 outlets in Russia, serving about 950,000 diners daily.
