McDonald's plans four full menu restaurants in West Bengal

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Kolkata, Jun 11: Global fast food major McDonald's will open full menu restaurants in Durgapur, Siliguri, Asansol and Darjeeling in the next three years.

It also plans to set up two new food processing plants in the north and north-east in two years to meet the demand of its existing 137 restaurants across the country and another 28 to be opened in 2008-09. At present, it has only one food processing plant in Taloja (outskirts of Mumbai).

In Kolkata, another 15-20 restaurants are going to come up in the next three to five years for which Rs 100 crore has been earmarked.

About five will come up in the city in the present fiscal, Vikram Bakshi, managing director of McDonald's India, told reporters while inaugurating a new restaurant in the Mani Square mall, located at EM Bypass.

The new 3,700 sqft restaurant will also have a McCafe a few years down the line, he said.

The Mani Square McDonald's is the only McDonald's restaurant in the city as the Park Street outlet remains shut after a faulty air conditioner exploded in August 2007, killing a passer-by.

The Park Street joint is opening in another three months, said Bakshi. "There have been considerable changes of design and equipment after the blast. Entry and exit are going to be separate and we have also opted for an electrical transformer," he clarified. Earlier, the power supply was only through a cable but now a transformer is going to be used, he added.

McDonald's has an aggressive growth plan for India and has committed Rs 400 crore over the next three years nationally, Bakshi said. While 40% of this money will go for expansion of the brand and introduction of new formats, the rest 60% will be directed towards back-end operations.

The new formats include kiosk and express models in the high footfall areas like railway stations and airports, said Bakshi. Kiosks, covering 700 sqft, serve desserts and beverages, while the express models, built on 150-200 sqft, serve limited menu. Home delivery is also included in the new format.

The kiosk and express models are mostly present in Delhi but our aim is to spread them all over, he said.

The fast food chain is growing by 30-35% every year in India, Bakshi said, but he declined to give any figure.