McDonald’s pulled out of Russia following a Western backlash against Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine, which included a barrage of economic sanctions, and sold all its restaurants to a local licensee in May. The restaurants started opening under the new name Vkusno & tochka, which translates to “Delicious and Ending”, on June 12. CEO Oleg Paroev told Reuters the chain had sold nearly 120,000 burgers on opening day. The new ownership wanted to emphasize that the high quality standards would be maintained or even improved, and that consumers would not notice much of a difference. It has since been forced to admit it faces a shortage of French fries until autumn, blaming a poor harvest in Russia and supply chain woes. “What happened now is that due to known facts many foreign companies, I would even say all major potato producers, refused to deliver this product to Russia,” Paroev told RBC TV, a business channel, late Thursday. CEO of Vkusno & tochka Oleg Paroev attends a press conference in Moscow on June 12. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters) Paroev said that factories in both “friendly” and “unfriendly” countries that produce potatoes belong to five or six large companies, whose headquarters are in unfriendly nations and which therefore refused to supply Russia. Moscow considers countries that have imposed sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine as “unfriendly”. Paroev said there was a shortage in Russia’s crop this year of the special potatoes needed for French fries and that other issues may arise, with only a few businesses able to process potatoes for French fries in Russia.
