Vkusno i Tochka says to launch plant making food equipment

MOSCOW, Jun 5 (PRIME) -- Restaurant chain Vkusno i Tochka will establish a hub producing high-tech food equipment in Russia and may start to use the tools in its outlets in 2023, CEO Oleg Paroyev told PRIME in an interview released on Monday.

"Our task is to gradually create a highly technological production hub on the territory of Russia that will be able to produce, perhaps, less complex at the start, but gradually more complex types of this highly-technological equipment not only for us, but rather for all market participants who want it," Paroyev said.

He added that Vkusno i Tochka uses monitors and automatic grills that no Russian facility used to produce.

Paroyev also said that the restaurant chain would likely have a profit in 2023. "Our sales were higher each month of 2023 than in the same period of McDonald's operations in 2021. We are rising by the volume of products, and, mainly, in monetary terms," he said.

Paroyev doubted that former owner of the assets, McDonald's, would return to Russia, although the agreement on asset sale includes a buyback option. "Concerning the question on the buyback option. It indeed exists, but, honestly, I don't think it will be fulfilled anytime soon, or in general, that a question of its fulfillment will ever arise," he said.

The executive also said that Belarus and Kazakhstan have decided to develop former assets of McDonald's under own brands, and Vkusno i Tochka is unrelated to businesses abroad.

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