Lahore, Pakistan - McDonald's is eyeing big expansion and big profits by selling Big Mac hamburgers in Pakistan, despite an economic crisis which has scared away most other multinationals.
“We plan as many restaurants as we can,” Ghouse Akbar, president and chief executive officer of GAM Corp, a joint venture partner of McDonald's Pakistan, told Reuters.
Akbar opened Pakistan's first McDonald's in Lahore, capital of Punjab province, in September and a second one this week after what he called an “overwhelming response” from the public.
“We open the third one next month, and fourth one a month after that and fifth and a sixth in the following months,” Akbar said.
“We served over 30,000 customers the first day,” Akbar said about the opening of the first restaurant, a drive-through outlet with a seating capacity for about 100 people.
The drive-through attracts clients in motorised rickshaws, on bicycles and even on horses.
“We have people on horses coming from the polo club, cycles, motorcyles and of course cars,” Akbar said.
Middle class Pakistanis are generally well-travelled and enjoy Western fast food. Pizza chains and other mass snack restaurants have opened in the biggest city, Karachi.
The expansion plans come as Pakistan faces a severe economic crisis, with foreign lending frozen since it tested nuclear devices in May, forcing some other multinationals to put their Pakistan plans on hold.
Akbar said although the average Pakistani was not used to a diet which included Western fast-food, there was tremendous potential for any company providing good service and quality.
“As long as you offer people quality, service and a real value, people will buy,” he said. “We're also coming out with a special chilli sauce. We are sensitive to local tastes.”
The restaurants will also not serve any pork products, forbidden in Islam, and will sell only meat which has been prepared in an Islamic way.
In October, the leader of the Jammat-e-Islami Islamic party called on Pakistanis to shun foreign foods -- including McDonalds -- in favour of home- grown favourites such as chicken tikka and kebabs.
The party resents the influence of the United States in Pakistan.
But Akbar said all the meat used in Pakistan was prepared according to “halal,” as the religious requirements are called, and that he could not understand why some were against the food chain even though it was providing jobs and paying taxes.
“People have to understand that we are a local company, we are just taking the best technology in the world and bringing it to Pakistan. I am a local, the people who work are locals, the people who are eating are locals,” Akbar said.
“Eight hundred to 1,000 people will be employed by end of the year. By 2000, approximately 3,000 to 4,000 people will be working for us,” he said.
The government's official unemployment rate is about five percent, although financial analysts say the real figure is much higher. Average income is $420 a year.
The restaurant chain is also unique because it has men and women working alongside each other cooking and serving hamburgers, an unusual sight in mostly Moslem Pakistan where even state-owned schools do not allow the two to come together.
“We've never had any incident in the restaurant,” said Ammad bin Shabbir, manager of the first Lahore restaurant. “The girls do all the jobs that boys do and without any problem.”
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