Foreign Fast Food Stages ''the Three Kingdoms''

By Anita Shen,
FranChina

The second-largest catering chain Burger King (BK) makes his first presence in Shanghai 15 years late after MCD and KFC. The same price grade, same fast food style, along with company-owned restaurant makes Burger King a qualified competitor. It is quoted from Chairman & CEO of Burger King Greg Brenneman that they spend almost a year preparing for entering into Chinese market, doing research about local market, culture and consuming habits.

Famous for his Whopper Sandwiches, fries and onion rings, Burger King has developed into a big family with 1,100 kids. In order to better fit the new market, Burger King localizes 50% of his food and adds hamburger & chicken wing as new items in his menu.

China is the most important market that BK has long tempted to break into. It is investigated that BK will open 10 restaurants within 12 months which are all company owned. ''We will create a sound brand awareness in the market and let the customers get used to BK as soon as possible.'' Said Greg Brenneman.

Shanghai Burger King Restaurant Co. Ltd was founded 6 month ago and was led by Xia Hongtu commissioned from BK Australia branch who did an excellent work by expanding BK into a large group of 299 outlets in Australia. Now this company takes the responsibility of BK China and has successfully build a comprehensive supply & demand system. As soon as BK company owned restaurant realizes profits surplus, he will aggressively carry out the business strategy in china with the help of franchise system.

''The time we see the profits in Shanghai, we will march into east part of China like Hangzhou, Nanjing and later then Beijing.'' quoted from Steve Desutter. In order to catch up with the fast pace of development in China, BK established a training center in Shanghai three weeks ago, which was used to train his own personnel and the future franchisor from the aspect of restaurant management, enterprises culture and concepts of products and services. ''The franchisor is required to receive at least six months training program and picked up after stringent examination so that he will be qualified by our standard.'' In addition, BK will be in charge of the supply and demand system of all restaurants in china in order to ensure the standardization in every franchised restaurant.

Burger King owns 11,000 restaurants in about 60 countries and territories of which 90% are franchised. In 2004, his global sales volume reached US$ 11.3 billion.

To the Chinese people at large, Burger King now means nothing special to them, and apparently, BK is not a direct competitor to either experienced MCD or KFC in their minds who has 666 and 1785 restaurants separately, MCD maintaining a 10% rising rate. At present BK has carried out an extensive promotion campaign with large noticeable poster everywhere at subway or business hubs, which seems to follow the same route as MCD or KFC first tried out in the Chinese market.

What's worse, location, a bottleneck problem confronting all catering enterprises is less likely to be overcome easily, which is also a big challenge for Burger King to face properly.