TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAST-FOOD RESTAURANT NETWORK IN UKRAINE IN THE CONDITIONS OF A FULL-SCALE WAR (USING THE EXAMPLE OF “MCDONALD’S UKRAINE LTD”)

Abstract

The relevance of the research: the full-scale Russian military invasion of Ukraine significantly affected the development of the restaurant business, including large fast-food chain enterprises. At the end of the first half of 2022, 37 % of public catering establishments closed, the sector lost up to 60 % of employees, and profits were halved. Unfortunately, large chain enterprises became the targets for shelling, which forced them to suspend their work for a while and review the results of operational and financial activities. The subject of the research: features of the territorial development of the facilities of the largest international fast-food chain in difficult conditions of socio-economic development. Purpose of the study: analysis of the development of transformation processes of the territorial organization of McDonald’s restaurants in Ukraine in the context of a full-scale military invasion of the aggressor country. Research methods: include a comparative analysis of statistical data on individual indicators of the operational and financial activities of FDI “McDonald’s Ukraine LTD” for the period 2022–2024, including taking into account the income received in 2023 by its direct competitors – the KFC Ukraine group of franchise companies and Puzata Khata LLC. Main results: our socio-geographical research established that over the past three years of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, every second new McDonald’s restaurant was opened in such cities of the country as Kyiv, Odessa, Lviv, Vinnytsia, Kropyvnytskyi and Chernivtsi. At the same time, through empirical research, it was determined that the dynamics of the company’s net income is in clear correspondence with the increase in the total area of restaurants over the above period of time. Practical significance: the results of the study are important for outlining promising directions for the territorial development of McDonald’s network facilities in the regional context of the country in the post-war period. Conclusions: McDonald’s opened 21 new restaurants in Ukraine in 2022–2024 in ten regions, mainly in the western and central regions, as well as the suburbs of the capital. This is due to the relative safety of these regions, compared to the southeastern part of the country, where 15 of the network’s establishments have been temporarily closed since February 24, 2022. The prospects for further research are to study new forms of territorial organization of the McDonald’s restaurant network (for example, the format of partnership cooperation with the gas station networks along the main interregional highways, as well as locations in new modern residential neighborhoods of the regional centers and their satellite cities), which is part of the company’s long-term development strategy in the fast food consumer services market.