Still No Franchising For McDonald’s

The Moscow Times:

McDonald’s, one of the biggest franchisers in the world, will continue to directly own all of its Russian restaurants for the near future, Khamzat Khasbulatov, the corporation’s president in Russia and Eastern Europe, said Wednesday.

“We have a successful operation, we don’t have the motivation to franchise,” Khasbulatov said.

Khasbulatov touted the company’s franchise model in use worldwide, but said there are some risks involved in applying it to Russia. “There are judicial risks,” he said, without elaborating.

Although the franchise model is widely used in Russian business, the law does not recognize the term. The legal code only has a clause about “commercial concessions.” A new bill is under review at the State Duma that will make franchising official.