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"Opponents of globalization, health food
proponents and fast food critics will find the decision to
name McDonald's Ukraine's best foreign company dismaying,
and it does seem, initially, an odd choice. However, the award
is well-deserved. Our selection is due less to the taste of
fries and hamburgers than to the tremendous impact the company
has had on life in Ukraine."
"McDonald's perfected the fast food
concept in the United States and has exported it to 120 nations.
In Ukraine, as elsewhere, McDonald's is shaping the public's
standard for quality and service and setting an example competitors
would be well served to emulate."
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Karen Bishop, McDonald's
managing director in Ukraine, near one of the company's restaurants
at Kyiv's Poshtova
ploscha. (Post Photo by Viktor Suvorov)
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"McDonald's served it first Big Mac in Kyiv
just three and a half years ago. Today, it boasts 43 restaurants
in 14 Ukrainian cities. The chain already operates 15 spots in Kyiv,
six in Odessa, five in Dnipropretrovsk and four in Kharkiv . The
company's reach recently extended to smaller cities like Simferopol,
Kryvy Rih, and Sumy."
"The multinational food company giant first
explored the Ukrainian market in 1993, but it wasn't until May 1997
that the company opened its first restaurant in Kyiv's Lukyanivska
metro station."
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| McDonald’s
and their Playland Equipment, Small boy going in the exit, Left
Bank Kyiv, May 30, 2000 |
SURPRISING SERVICE
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"Unlike Kyiv's other restaurateurs, McDonald's
targeted the city's hungry masses. The company introduced
a concept of service in Ukraine's public eateries, a novelty
that's now becoming engraved in Ukrainians' mentality. Since
1997, Ukrainians have come to demand that they be treated
efficiently and politely in inexpensive public eateries. Restaurant
owners are learning that their business' survival may well
hinge on how well they serve customers."
"McDonald's has had "a democratizing
effect" on the restaurant scene here, said Oleh Strekal, spokesman
for McDonald's Ukraine Limited. 'We've shown that high standards
aren't for only 3 percent of the Ukraine's population. "
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"Ukrainians have responded 'en masse.'
According to McDonald's data, some 60 million people have
visited the company's restaurants here."
"If McDonald's first exploited people's
hunger for fast food and good service, local firms have been
quick to compete for consumer attention. Now Rostik's, Shvydko
and other restaurants provide clean stores that quickly serve
good quality, economical fare to customers. This trend, initiated
by McDonald's, has made it possible to get a lunch for two
in downtown Kyiv for less than Hr 50 ($ 9.00)."
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INVESTING LOCALLY
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"The fast food monolith has pumped some
$ 70 million into its Ukrainian ventures, with most of the
funds flowing into the local economy. McDonald's has kept
50 Ukrainian construction companies busy building outlets
across Ukraine. Domestic vendors Chumak, Galakton, Slavyansky
Dom and the Vinnytsya meat processing plant supply products
that find their way into McDonald's hamburgers and shakes."
"Strekal said Ukrainian ingredients
now account for about 40 percent of McDonald's products. The
company plans to increase that figure to 95 percent within
two years."
"The company also employs about 2,000
young Ukrainians, who earn starting salaries of $ 100 a month
for full-time work. Doesn't sound like much? Consider the
staggering low average Ukrainian wage of $ 40 per month. Strekal
says McDonald's had 20 applications per one job in Vinnytsya,
where it opened a restaurant earlier this year."
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McDonalds Restaurant in
Kyiv
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"McDonald's employees who show promise may
earn the opportunity to attend company training at "Hamburger University"
in Chicago. The work ethic and managerial skills taught to McDonald's
employees can help them build careers that extend far beyond the
company's burger grills and deep fryers."
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McDonalds Restaurant in Kyiv
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"Jobs, service and food
aside, McDonald's restaurants also help renew bleak, rundown
cityscapes."
"McDonald's is an oasis amid Kryvy Rih's crumbling architecture.
In Vinnytsya, the company's spot has transformed a bum's playground
into the cleanest square in town."
"McDonald's popularity is
gaining in Ukraine's regions, Strekal said. He claims mayors
come to the McDonald's office in Kyiv to woo the company.
'Come to our
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town,' Strekal quoted one mayor as saying.
'Choose any site in town, and we'll give it to you."
CUTTING RED TAPE
| ’"Our
choice is also a recognition of McDonald's battle with Ukrainian
overwhelming red tape. Any business that manages to open 43
locations in Ukraine, within three and half years deserves a
pat on the back. Some may say opening a new McDonald's restaurant
should be easier as the standards and technologies are the same
in all of its restaurants."
"Not in Ukraine."
"Strekal said the company needs to collect a startling number
of signatures and stamps from various officials before launching
a new store. Strekal said McDonald's has to collect a dozen
signatures from officials at one government agency to simply
qualify for a superior's stamp."
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McDonald’s In Podil 
|
 "We
have the same products and technologies everywhere,' Strekal said.
'But every time we want to open a new restaurant in Ukraine we need
up to 1,100 signatures."
"It sounds masochistic, and it is. The company
had to obtain one small-town mayor's personal blessing just to repaint
a decrepit building."
"Not that the capital is much more progressive.
Just days before McDonald's was scheduled to open a restaurant near
Kyiv's central railway station, Strekal recalls, contractors needed
to dig up a fragment of the road to connect the restaurant with
the city water system. The work would have been completed overnight,
he said, but one of Kyiv's government agencies objected."
"The agency said asphalt on the road couldn't
be touched as only a year had passed since it was laid,' Strekal
said."
"The agency inflexibly relied on a regulation
requiring that asphalt has to be at least 18 months old before it
can be removed for construction work. The contractor was forced
to build a costly underground tunnel to reach the water pipe and
complete construction in time. "
"Strekal is proud to mention that McDonald's
receive no tax breaks as a foreign investor. He said the company
regularly makes payments to various budgets and is frequently raided
by tax police officers, as are many other businesses."
CHARITY BEATS BRIBERY
"Strekal said McDonald's doesn't offer Ukrainian
officials 'financial incentives,' but the restaurant chain does
tout its community involvement, sponsoring numerous events and charity
benefits. The activism that makes them what Strekal calls a 'socially
responsible company' helps McDonald's cement sympathy throughout
Ukraine."
"Earlier this year McDonald's sponsored the
100-year anniversary of the Lviv Opera Theater. The company has
three locations there."
"Having local friends helps too. McDonald's
rents its restaurant on Maidan Nezalezhnosti from Argo Trading,
and the Khreshchatyk restaurant is located in the building McDonald's
co-runs with Olby-Ukraine."
"Cooperation with local partners makes our
life easier,' Strekal said.
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