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NEWS | McDonald’s to go for changeover in South and West India


McDonald’s outlets in South and West India are going for a changeover as Hardcastle Restaurants (HRPL), the master franchisee for the regions’ operations, is preparing for a reverse merger with its parent Westlife Development (WDL). With the changeover, HRPL aims to connect better with older customers and increase sales. “Fashions too change over time.
To keep ourselves relevant we are re-imaging the look of our restaurants by going in for softer lighting, more use of wood and more apt graphics. This whole new design has already been implemented in some of our newer outlets in Navi Mumbai and at a few locations in Mumbai city itself,” Amit Jatia, Vice Chairman, HRPL, said. The re-imaging is part of a billion-dollar-plus worldwide drive by the maker of Happy Meals to revitalise the look and feel of its stores to make it a cool place to hang out, marking the biggest makeover in its 56-year-old history. HRPL hopes that the makeover will help it increase same store sales and sell more of its higher priced items replicating the experience in US following the makeover. “We have got good feedback from customers. Some of our customers are now much older than when we first started out in India over a decade ago. The re-imaging ensures that we will not lose our connection with our older customers and we stay relevant to our current consumers,” Jatia was quoted as saying in a report by Yassir A Pitalwalla and Meghna Maiti in the Financial Chronicle.