Burger King plans France expansion
Fast food chain reveals plan to open 25 restaurants in 2014, and says it will operate up to 400 venues in 10 years
BURGER KING has announced it is planning a major assault on the French fast food business, 15 years after its first attempt to gain a foothold here ended in failure.
It currently has operates two restaurants - one in Marignane and one at Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris, but has unveiled plans to open 25 more in 2014. It has already announced plans to open between 350 and 400 restaurants in the next decade.
Oliver Bertrand, chairman of the Bertrand Group which has agreed a joint venture with the American restaurant chain said: “We have a craze in the market, with strong demand from investors, franchisees and consumers.”
He said the expansion into France this year would create up to 1,200 jobs, with Burger King venues set to open in city centres and on the outskirts of large cities.
The first raft of new Burger King franchises are set to open in Bordeaux, Lyon, Toulouse, Nantes, Lille, Brest, Le Mans and Troyes.
The first drive-through facility will start operating in May.
Mr Bertrand said that Burger King was hoping for a 20% share of the hugely popular burger market in France. Last year the French munched their way through 970 million burgers - almost half of all sandwiches sold in the country.
According to figures released earlier this year, McDonald’s and Quick, sold 655 million burgers between them in France in 2013.
Poor profits prompted Burger King to close its 39 restaurants in France in 1997. The chain was absent from the country until December 2013, when it opened a new restaurant in Gare Saint-Lazare.
