Murmansk fishing company planning to launch fast food chain in Moscow
More specifically, in October 2009 Nord Stream is planning to launch a fast food chain under the Okean label of affordable fish shops. The new chain will be constructed following the example of the UK's Fish & Chips.
The company's director says they have asked Moscow's government to allocate 300 sites to set up the fish shops in the capital. As the raw fish the company will use own products (Nord Stream is engaged in crab farming and inshore fishery). The average price per dish is expected to amount to RUB80.00-90.00. In the future the company will look into possible launch of fast food outlets in trade centres, entrance to the market of Saint Petersburg as well as opening of small fish shops. Investments to the project have remained undisclosed so far. Mr. Andrey Petrakov, CEO of RestCon (professional consulting company specialised in restaurant business) estimates the cost of one fast food outlet at 20,000-30,000 USD.
In the meantime, PR head of the Federal Fisheries Agency Mr. Alexander Saveljev says that so far governments of Moscow and Saint Petersburg have been not so active in supporting launch of the Okean chain with only one shop now working in the capital and the first two shops to be opened in Saint Petersburg by the end of September 2009. The Agency plans to help businessmen willing to launch the Okean-labelled shops by searching for the premises at affordable charges. The plans provide for establishing a federal chain of 500 shops by the year 2013. Since the end of spring 2009 the chain has grown to some 50 shops.
However, the market participants are not sure that the new project will be developing at the same rate. Now in Moscow there are simply no 300 good sites with a high rate of visitors to generate strong proceeds, said marketing director of the Kroshka Kartoshka chain Mr. Mikhail Kudryavtsev. The above project would be enough for 50 fast food sites, said Mr. Petrakov. Actually, seafood items are now present in the menus of all the fast food chains now working in Moscow and such products normally account for a small share of the product range on offer. Mr. Petrakov also recalls attempts to open a fast food chain focusing on seafood. For instance, in the year 2003 the first take-aways called Kapitan were commissioned in Moscow, but the project never turned profitable and it was closed several years after.