Westlife Development plans to open over 25 McDonald's stores annually

Westlife Development, the operator of McDonald's in India plans to expand its presence across the country through malls, standalone stores on high streets and drive through, after witnessing a short blip in store opening plan owing to volatility of lockdown.
The master franchisee of McDonald's restaurants for western and southern India, expects its business to return to pre-COVID-19 level from the next quarter and continue to add more stores to its network.

The company plans to open 25-30 stores every year to expand its presence across the country. Currently, Westlife Development operates over 300 McDonald's stores in 42 cities of the western and southern India.

“Drive-thru has become a big enabler for us as consumers are preferring this format of food takeaway more than ever before. The use-case for drive-thru has also evolved owing to increased road travel and hence, we will focus on this format a little more going forward,” said Sanjay Soni, Senior Vice President – Development & Supply Chain at Westlife Development Ltd

According to the company it expects business back to pre-Covid levels in the coming quarters. The firm has already witnessed revenue from convenience channels which comprises delivery, on-the-go and drive through having exceeded pre-COVID levels.

“Even with the Government restrictions of timing and capacity, dine-in is showing strong recovery. So once complete normalcy resumes, we are confident in-store also building back, sooner than later,” said Soni.

Restaurants have been severely disrupted during the lockdown as the government moved to announce a nationwide closure. However, they were allowed to open for online deliveries, but remained shut in shopping centres, malls and areas due to the second wave of the pandemic.