The owner of the main franchise of KFC and Rostic’s in Russia continues to buy the business of its counterparts, as Kommersant has learned. According to the publication’s sources, Unirest LLC is negotiating the acquisition of its franchisee AK Russia LLC. Previously, AK Russia refused to change Rostic’s signage and planned to operate under the KFC brand at least until 2035.
- The rights to use the KFC brand in the country until October 2022 belonged to the subsidiary of the American Yum! Brands, who, in turn, decided to leave Russia due to the entry of the Russian Armed Forces into the territory of Ukraine.
- Then the business was bought by the franchisee of the Izhevsk network, Smart Service Konstantin Kotov and Andrey Oskolkov. After this, the company was renamed Unirest.
- Last spring, Unirest began changing the signage of its establishments to that of Rostic. According to the company’s general director, Tatyana Shamanskaya, the rebranding of all 1.15 thousand KFC restaurants will be completed in the first quarter of this year.
However, not all franchisees expressed a desire to change the name. “Hey Kay Russia” wants the name to remain familiar to Russians for years to come. Agreement with Yum! The trademark license to use the brand expires only in 2035. Experts said that such a desire was quite natural, since the company initially bought a franchise of a well-known international chain.
AK Russia currently manages a hundred establishments. Analysts estimate that changing the sign to Rostic’s could deprive the restaurants of 20% of their traffic.
“AK Russia” increased its revenue by 45% in 2022, amounting to 8.6 billion rubles, according to data from Kartoteka.ru, to which the publication refers. It is also clear from the database that 90.01% belongs to the Cypriot Lerondale Assets Ltd.
Previously, the media named Alexander Kolobov, the owner of Shokoladnitsa, as one of the final beneficiaries. However, he abandoned the business and transferred the stake to his partner Siman Povarenkin, Kommersant claims, citing his market source. The remaining 9.99% of AK Russia belongs to Sberbank Investments.
According to Infoline-Analytics CEO Mikhail Burmistrov, many franchisees are not willing to pay royalties for the Rostic brand in the same amount as for KFC. For this reason, the business is sold and the franchise owner has a priority purchase right.
Burmistrov estimates the amount of the transaction between Unirest and AK Russia at 3-4 billion rubles, excluding the discount established for transactions with foreign assets.
Author:
Natalia Gormaleva
Source: RB
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