March 26 (SeeNews) - Canada's Restaurant Brands International said it has signed a franchise agreement with Kosovo-based Balkan Foods, enabling it to open Firehouse Subs fast casual restaurants in Kosovo and Albania.
A fast casual restaurant markets elevated food and service quality as opposed to fast food chains, with minimum use of frozen ingredients.
Balkan Foods is set to open the first restaurant in Albania within 2024, whereas the first Kosovo restaurant is to open in the coming years, Restaurant Brands International said in a social media post last week.
Founded as a family business in Florida in 1994, Firehouse Subs was acquired by Burger King-parent company Restaurant Brands International in 2021, for $1 billion (920 million euro). According to its website, the restaurant chain has now expanded to 1,250 locations across the globe.
Established in Kosovo in 2017, Balkan Foods operates Burger King restaurants in Bulgaria, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Earlier this month, Balkan Foods said it would open a Popeyes restaurant in Kosovo this year, before introducing the brand in three more Balkan countries in the coming years, including Albania.
(1 euro = $1.085)