Ukrainians Fancy Fast Food
Fast food is a necessity dictated by the current rate of life. However, few are content to buy a sandwich or a hotdog from an old lade at a bus stop, just as few believe in eating as they hurry down the street. The alternative, of course, is dropping in at a fast food restaurant, although analysts believe that this market is filled only by 60-70%. Can the national fast-fooders with national menus meet the market demand? Is the Ukrainian fast-food cuisine popular?
Ukrainians statistically visit McDonald’s twice a month, on the average. When they first appeared people stood in endless lines to get there. Now this interest is noticeably abating. Iryna Holubenko, a psychologist, says that McDonald’s remains a thrilling experience perhaps in a backwater province where the populace tends to regard it as something very modern, typically American. Fast food is getting to be regarded almost as matter-of-factly in Ukraine as anywhere in the West, so people prefer to visit restaurants with exotic Ukrainian names like Shvydko [Quick!], Puzata Khata [Pot-bellied Cabin] or Dva Husia [Two Geese]. “I don’t agree with those saying Kyiv must have lots of diners offering Arab, Spanish, or Mexican food,” argues Iryna Holubenko, “because I know the Ukrainian character; such diners won’t last long. In several years, most customers will have had enough of foreign dishes and will return to the good old cuisine.”
In reality, however, what she says sounds more like wishful thinking. Studies carried out by the Restaurant Consulting Agency show that McDonald’s remains in the fast-food lead. There are 50 such restaurants in Ukraine, with $76 million worth of foreign inland investment. The company spends some $400,000 a year on personnel training, something no Ukrainian fast-fooder can afford. Too bad, as all market operators admit that they are happy to hire trained and disciplined McDonald’s personnel. No alternative so far.
A former McDonald’s manager in Kyiv says their personnel training is very simple, with punishments meted out and awards conferred in the monetary form, so everybody understands that working well pays off. Breaching a single McDonald’s rule warrants instant dismissal. Their personnel is trained to spot customers, raise a hand and announce free cash register. Most importantly, every customer must be made welcome with a smile. Every order is taken with friendly advice, like offering a bun to go with a coffee. The standard procedure is repeating the customer’s order aloud, so as not to make a mistake. Customers leaving the restaurant are wished a good day and invited to come again. Change is given with both hands, one holding banknotes, the other small change. Interestingly, McDonald’s personnel is trained not to use negative sentences when talking to customers. Now this is psychology!
Restaurant Consulting Manager Olha Nasonova explains that the secret of McDonald’s success is not only money, but also skill born of experience (119 countries, 30,000 restaurants, 47 million personnel). And the fact that they came to Ukraine not only with ready standards. They are here because they filled in a vacant niche. With the Ukrainian operators the situation is more complicated. Given a rather serious competition, they have to move forth by trial and error, although Ms. Nasonova feels sure that they will eventually take the lead, as evidenced by the Celentano Pizzeria chain that emerged in Lviv and is now right behind McDonald’s.
Ukrainian fast-fooders agree that the future holds a lot of promise. Serhiy Stratiyenko, Kurkul [Kulak] Chain manager, believes that national fast food lacks two things — money and experience. A chain is considered effective and profit-making in the presence of at least five or six outlets. Opening them is a problem due to exorbitant food-court (here premises including public catering, retail, and entertainment facilities) rental charges, so that 30% of the proceeds is spent on rent — and this considering that fast-food arrangements cost practically as much as opening a prestigious restaurant.
Professional skills present an almost as disheartening picture. McDonald’s has a set of rules defining even the color of a bun. Ukrainian operators are still experimenting. In addition, they have to discuss their menus with rivals, because three different kinds of borscht offered by three operators in the same food court would make a sorry neighborhood. Tentative estimates show that similar dishes served in neighboring restaurants or snack bars lower their incomes by 20-30%, now that such incomes are not too big in Kyiv, although less and less people bring lunches to work. Ukrainian fast-fooders sometimes envy their counterparts in Moscow. Serhiy Stratiyenko explains that fast-fooders in Moscow are packed practically round the clock, due to a steady influx of visitors to the Russian capital. In Kyiv, it happens only at lunchtime, in the vicinity of offices, and not all the time. Besides, there are fewer babushka vendors in Russia that bring lunches to offices.
Therefore, owing to objective and subjective reasons, there are two national fast-fooders in Ukraine (precisely in Kyiv) claiming their respective brands: Shvydko and Dva Husia. Even so they are respectively placed fifth and sixth, after McDonald’s, Celentano Pizzeria, Mr. Snack, and MacSmak. Experts, however, regard Shvydko and Dva Husia as the most competitive market operators capable eventually of crowding out burgers and pizzas — albeit with the reservation that this will most likely happen in Kyiv. Shvydko executives say they have no intention of conquering regions before 2007, and that they will first channel investments received from a large Western company in expanding the capital’s chain. This prompts experts to state that an all-Ukraine national fast-fooder is not likely to appear in the nearest future, as all the hallmarks are still with McDonald’s and the Pizzeria.
Yet there are reasons for hope. Practically all operators plan to move further into the regions after scoring a victory in Kyiv. Statistically, the capital’s fast-food market is showing an unprecedented rate. Last year, its capacity amounted to UAH 450 million and this year’s increment is expected to reach at least 20% — and this considering that fast-food market demand is satisfied by only 60-70%, says Olha Nasonova, adding that many things are still needed to start the McDrive alternative to McDonald’s, which is an increasing necessity in view of the quickening pulse of public and business life. In addition, there are practically no modernized versions of former Soviet dining halls in Kyiv. Domashnia Kukhnia [Home Cuisine] is the only operator of the kind, but its capacity does not suffice, of course. Salad bars are spread rather wide across Russia, whereas in Kyiv the only one is at the Hlobus [Globe] Trade Center.
True, Ukrainian fast-food consumers display a rather humble assortment of requirements and aspirations. Iryna Kalinina, an accountant, says the main thing is for the place to be clean and for the food to be healthy and authentic: “I can’t accept any of those carcinogenic hot dogs, shaurma, and burgers you have to eat as you go. A salad with a nice chop or fish you can have in a cozy place quickly served, with hot tea in winter, is an altogether different story.” Hryhory Hovorunov, a physician: “We say national food I think because it’s the kind of food favored by most of the population, so I wish we had more good and tasty Ukrainian dishes.”
