McDonald's closes restaurant on the border with Ukraine due to falling traffic
Due to a catastrophic drop in traffic between Russia and Ukraine, McDonald's is terminating the lease agreement for a restaurant in the village of Stroitel on the border of the Belgorod and Kharkov regions.
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The owner of the restaurant building built it on credit for 50 million rubles. The lease agreement with McDonald's included 5% of turnover or $12,95 thousand per month for the entire building. The average restaurant turnover was expected to be 8 million rubles. in winter and up to 15 million rubles. in summer. Before the devaluation of the ruble, the rent should have been 400-750 thousand rubles. per month.
In the fall of 2014, traffic on the section of the M2 highway from Stroitel to Kharkov and the restaurant’s turnover fell by half. By December 2014, due to a sharp jump in the dollar exchange rate, the rental amount reached 969 thousand rubles, and the restaurant’s turnover did not increase. The owner of the building proposed to fix the rent at 480 thousand rubles. per month. But McDonald's stated that it was ready to pay only 100 thousand rubles. per month. In this case, the owner of the building would have to repay the loan for 50 years, and the contract would be terminated.
As Kommersant notes , this is the first McDonald's closure in Russia, not counting Crimea, since the fast food chain's existence in the Russian Federation.
McDonald's is closing its restaurant on the Ukrainian border due to a drop in traffic.