News

McDonald's India makes big drive-thru investment

September 30, 2010

As quick-service chains continue to expand exponentially throughout India, McDonald's is upping the ante on its piece of the market.

The company will invest approximately Rs100-crore (about $22 million) to open between 20 and 25 stores with drive-thru components throughout the next three years, according to Daily News and Analysis India.

This objective is on top of an overall expansion of about 40 stores by the end of 2010, and between 50 and 60 stores in 2011.

Currently, there are eight McDonald's units with drive-thrus in the country. McDonald's Corp. opened its first location in India in New Dehli in 1996.

In October 2009, the company announced plans to grow 10-fold in the country by 2025. Sales that year were up 30 percent.

From the story:

"Drive-thru format is the most profitable format across the world and we will focus more here. We plan to open 20-25 of these stores in the next 3-years. As per our strategy the company plans to open 40 new outlets across India at an investment of Rs3-crore per outlet," said Vikram Bakshi, McDonalds' managing director, (north and east India).