990536 Burger King Plans 500 European Restaurants

London - Burger King Corporation announced that it has reached agreement to form a strategic alliance with Autogrill SpA to open 500 Burger King restaurants.

This alliance is a major platform for both Burger King and Autogrill SpA to accelerate the growth of their brands mainly in Italy and across Europe. It brings the Burger King brand to Italy for the first time. The size of Autogrill's Italian operation, and the availability of immediate locations will enable rapid development of the Burger King brand in Italy.

The majority of the restaurants will be located in Italy in city centres, shopping malls and on motorways, and wherever possible, Autogrill will also open Burger King restaurants in the food courts it operates in airports and railway stations. In addition to stand-alone Burger King restaurants, there will be a number of co-branded units with the Spizzico pizza restaurant brand, offering the consumer additional choice and variety on one site.

Commenting on the alliance, Dennis Malamatinas, Chief Executive Officer of Burger King Corporation said, “Burger King has aggressive development plans for Europe and this provides an excellent opportunity for us not only to enter the Italian market but to develop alongside Autogrill on the motorways, airports and railway stations across Europe.

“We have synergies in our brands and in our service and operational skills. I look forward to working with Autogrill to aggressively develop both our brands across Europe.”

“This alliance will enable Autogrill to strengthen its quick-service restaurant business, including Spizzico,” said Autogrill President Gilberto Benetton. “But we believe it will also help fuel a significant change in people's eating habits and free time, by offering customers a unique and varied choice of facilities. In moving towards this goal, we naturally turned to a hamburger provider with a worldwide reputation for excellent product quality and innovation.”

The first restaurants are planned to open in Italy in June.

Autogrill is Europe's largest modern retail catering group and, through its Spizzico network, is the market leader in the quick-service pizza area in Italy. The parent company is Edizione Holding, the Benetton family's financial holding.

At 31 December 1998, the Group had 636 outlets operating under the Autogrill sign in Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria and Greece. It ranks as absolute leader on the European freeway and motorway market and also has outlets in the centres of major Italian cities, airports and shopping malls, sports and exhibition centres. Systemwide sales for 1998, including sales by the franchising network, amounted to 2,315 billion lire. One of the group's priorities today is the expansion in Italy and Europe of the Spizzico offer of pizza and other traditional Mediterranean dishes. It has about 140 Spizzico outlets in Europe.

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