HARARE - US fast food giant McDonald's has said it will take steps to open its popular restaurants in Zimbabwe, more than a decade after it initially indicated its willingness to set up shop.
“We have not set a firm date for the development of McDonald’s restaurants in Zimbabwe,” McDonalds international franchising unit said in a statement posted on its website.
The statement said the company was already seeking potential holders of the franchise. The coming of McDonald’s would bring competition to the fast foods sector, currently dominated by Innscor Africa’s fast food franchises – Chicken Inn, Bakers Inn, Creamy Inn and Vasilis, a bakery and coffee concept.
Innscor is also the Zimbabwean holder of South Africa’s Steers, which has over 450 franchises in Africa, and Nandos, a restaurant chain originating from South Africa but with a Portuguese theme. Nandos operates in about 30 countries on different continents.
In 1999, McDonald indicated that it was willing to set up a franchise in the country, but shelved the plans as Zimbabwe plunged into an unprecedented economic crisis that began with the crash of the local dollar in November 1997 after President Robert Mugabe authorised payments to about than 50 000 former fighters of the countrys 1970s liberation war.
The payouts were not budgeted and the economy responded with a bang, resulting in the infamous Black Friday crash of 14 November 1997 when the Zimbabwe dollar plunged on a single day from $14 against the United States greenback to $26 to the US unit.
The secondary contagion effect was a sharp 40 percent crash of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. The stock market lost 46 percent of the value of shares as investors scrambled to dump the Zimbabwe dollar.
Withdrawal of balance of balance of payments support by the International Monetary Fund in 1999 and the farm invasions that began the following send Zimbabwes economy plunging into the mire, forcing many investors to close shop and flee the collapsing economy while those like McDonalds, which were planning to come, quietly abandoned such plans.
Post published in: Economy