USA – American multinational fast food corporation McDonald’s has entered into a “long-term global strategic partnership Just Eat Takeaway.com to expand global delivery capabilities.
Dutch-based Just Eat Takeaway.com is Europe’s largest online restaurant food ordering service connecting consumers and restaurants through its platform in 14 European countries, and Israel.
The partnership will “support growth of the McDelivery business and will lead to increased operational benefits for Just Eat Takeaway.com,” Takeaway said in a statement.
McDonald’s offers delivery at 33,000 restaurants in 100 countries through a variety of platforms, making it the world’s largest restaurant company.
It has had agreements in individual markets with Just Eat Takeaway.com, but the new global agreement will reduce complexity and improve operational efficiency, Takeaway said.
Elsewhere in Russia, a local alternative, Uncle Vanya, appears to be gearing up to replace the exiting McDonald’s — with a strangely familiar logo.
Uncle Vanya has already made a trademark filing for it’s yellow and red logo looks which are almost identical to the iconic Golden Arches of McDonald’s but tilted 90 degrees to the right.
They form part of the letter “B” in the Cyrillic alphabet, which corresponds to the “V” in “Vanya.”
Though none of these new restaurants have opened yet, the plan is apparently to take over existing shuttered McDonald’s restaurants, according to the Washington Post.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s lower house in parliament, said last week that Russian brands should take over McDonald’s locations.
“They announced they are closing. Well, okay, close. But tomorrow in those locations we should have not McDonald’s, but Uncle Vanya’s,” he said.
Officials have also said Russia can ignore patents owned by entities from countries that Moscow sees as hostile, while Russian President Vladimir Putin last week endorsed a plan to nationalize foreign-owned businesses that have left the country.
McDonald’s arrived in the Soviet Union in 1990 drawing crowds as well as headlines, becoming a symbol of the West’s triumph over communism at the end of the Cold War.
Since then, the Chicago-headquartered company has gained popularity in Russia and Ukraine, both former members of the Soviet Union.
Nine percent of McDonald’s US$23.2 billion in revenue last year came from the two countries.
Despite exiting closing its business McDonald which had 850 stores in Russia has said it will be paying salaries to its 62,000 workers in the federation.
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