IndiaRetailBiz

McDonald’s the world’s biggest quick service food chain, which has already established its presence in the North/ East and the West with a chain of 123 restaurants, is now ready to spread its footprint in the South beginning with Bangalore and Hyderabad. According to agency reports, it will enter Chennai by the year end.

Although,McDonald’s has developed several vegetarian dishes to suit the needs of a section of Indian consumers, its expansion plan in the South takes into account recent findings of a survey on food intake habits of Indians carried out by Protein Foods & Nutrition Development Association of India. Results of the Indian Food Intake Survey-2006, reveals that not only 80% of the South Indians eat non-vegetarian food (as against 56% in the North), but at around 2 kg per capita they also eat more chicken than their counterparts in the North at 1.2 kg per capita.

McDonald’s in India, apart from offering standard international items, has developed a special vegetarian menu including eggless sandwich sauces, soft serves and McShakes to meet specific needs of a section of Indian consumers. In deference to religious sensitivities of a large number of Indians, McDonald’s has also refrained from offering any beef or pork items in India. McDonald’s Indian restaurants, besides vegetarian products, offer only chicken, fish and vegetable in their non-vegetarian products. McDonald’s has also re-formulated some of its products, like McVeggie burger, McAloo Tikki burger, Veg. Pizza McPuff and Chicken McGrill burger, using spices to suit Indian tastes.

McDonald’s has two 50-50 joint venture partnership in India with Amit Jatia (for West) and Vikram Bakshi (for North).