Russians can no longer go to McDonald’s | Financial

According to Kempczinski, the thousands of McDonald’s employees in Russia made it difficult to heed growing calls for a boycott. In total, McDonald’s has about 62,000 employees in the country. They will continue to be paid, McDonald’s promises.

‘Unnecessary suffering in Ukraine’

“In the more than 30 years that McDonald’s has been operating in Russia, we have become an important part of the 850 communities in which we operate,” the CEO wrote in a message to staff at the fast food chain. “But we cannot ignore the unnecessary suffering in Ukraine.”

In recent days, many American companies have already announced that they will stop selling in Russia, but McDonald’s has kept quiet for a remarkably long time. There were many messages on social media calling on the American company to leave Russia.

KFC

Yum Brands, KFC’s parent company, responded to pressure to boycott Russia by no longer investing in expansion in Russia. But closing local fast food restaurants is difficult to enforce, according to Yum Brands, because they are run by independent franchisees.

Russia was an important growth market for KFC. In addition to China and India, the country was the market with the most new branches of the snack chain for fried chicken. About a hundred new KFC restaurants opened every year, Yum Brands reported in its quarterly figures at the beginning of February.

Starbucks

Starbucks announced on Tuesday evening that it would stop doing business in Russia. This means that the American coffee chain will no longer supply Starbucks products to the brand’s 130 Russian franchise stores, such as coffee beans or cups with the well-known logo.

Last week, CEO Kevin Johnson emphasized that some 2,000 people in Russia depend on Starbucks for their income, making a sudden departure from the country irresponsible. Now that the war in Ukraine has been going on for almost two weeks, Johnson says he will suspend all activities in Russia. The Starbucks licensee in Russia will support the hundreds of people who are now out of work, Johnson promised in a statement.

Starbucks in Russia mainly earns money from the licenses it sells to open and run a business of the brand. Earlier, the company announced that it would donate all of those proceeds to emergency aid in Ukraine. Starbucks has no branches in that country.

Pressure on US companies to boycott Russia is growing. According to business newspaper The Wall Street Journal, PepsiCo, the company behind brands such as Pepsi, Doritos and Duyvis, is now also investigating the possibilities for a departure from Russia.

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