December 16 (SeeNews) - Polish restaurant operator AmRest Holdings has opened a second restaurant under the Burger King brand in Bulgaria and plans to further expand the brand in the country next year, local media reported on Monday.
The newly-opened restaurant is located in Paradise Center in Sofia, Capital.bg reported.
"In the following five years we will develop very actively the brand in Sofia and in the big cities - Plovdiv, Burgas and Varna," Capital.bg quoted Hristo Dzhurkolov, a country manager at AmRest for the brands of Burger King and KFC in Bulgaria as saying. According to Dzhurkolov, company plans to open at least two more Burger King restaurants in Bulgaria in 2020.
The investment in the new restaurant follows a master franchise agreement for the opening of new Burger King restaurants in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania. The agreement was signed at the beginning of 2019 between AmRest and Burger King Europe.
In September, AmRest said it plans to open three Burger King restaurants in Bucharest by the end of 2019.
Until 2019 there were nine Burger King restaurants in Bulgaria, operated by five different companies. The presence of many companies operating the Burger King chain in Bulgaria has led to a decrease in the quality of service, so AmRest decided to close several restaurants in Varna and Sofia, leaving only one rastaurant in the capital city, Capital.bg quoted Dzhurkolov as saying.
After the signing of the agreement, however, the restaurant operator can keep investing in the Burger King brand. According to AmRest research, the Bulgarian market has room for 40 Burger King restaurants.
"By the end of 2020 we hope to reach our level from 2017," Dzhurkolov was quoted as saying.
AmRest also seeks to expand its KFC and Starbucks brands in Bulgaria and to renovate existing restaurants, Capital.bg said. AmRest plans to open a KFC restaurant in the spring of 2020 and 6-7 Starbucks coffee shops in the next two years.
The company has invested over 15 million levs ($8.5 million/7.7 million euro) in its business in Bulgaria to date, Dzhurkolov said.
AmRest currently operates 24 restaurants in Bulgaria - 14 Starbucks coffee shops, eight KFC restaurants and two Burger King restaurants.
AmRest Holdings is a multi-brand franchise restaurant operator in Europe with a portfolio of 10 brands across 25 countries. It operates franchise brands such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Burger King, proprietary brands like Sushi Shop, La Tagliatella, Bacoa, Blue Frog and KABB, as well as virtual brand Pokai.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)