In the eighteen months since the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the watching world has frequently been amazed by Ukraine’s remarkable resilience. Ukrainians have defied the expectations of experts who predicted Kyiv would fall in a matter of days, and have instead managed to secure significant success on the battlefield while also keeping the country running. Few events have captured this ability to maintain a degree of everyday normality better than the reopening of Ukraine’s McDonald’s restaurants.
Making international headlines
When news first broke in early September 2022 that McDonald’s was to begin reopening its Ukrainian restaurants, the symbolic significance of the move was immediately apparent thanks to the scale of the international media coverage it received. The story was featured by everyone from CNN and the Washington Post to Al Jazeera and the Wall Street Journal. The Associated Press report led with a headline proclaiming “Big Mac is coming back,” while Reuters announced: “Offering taste of normality, McDonald’s reopens in Kyiv seven months into war.” Rarely has the ability to order a hamburger and fries been so meaningful.
For Yuliya Badritdinova, who serves as Managing Director of McDonald’s in Ukraine, Czech Republic, and Slovakia, the reopening of the first Ukrainian McDonald’s restaurants in September 2022 was the culmination of months of careful preparations that reflected the unprecedented security situation in wartime Ukraine. Speaking at the McDonald’s Ukraine head office in Kyiv, she recalls how the idea of starting to reopen individual stores first began to take shape in April 2022 following the retreat of Russian forces from the suburbs of the Ukrainian capital and the surrounding regions of northern Ukraine. At that time, it was already clear that customers wanted their normal lives back, while McDonald’s crews were eager to return to their working routines. However, it would be almost half a year before restaurants could begin serving the Ukrainian public once again.
Emphasis on safety
The planning process for restaurant reopenings involved extensive research covering everything from the availability of ingredients to the serviceability of equipment that had not been used for an extended period of time. Needless to say, safety issues were the primary concern, with decisions regarding which restaurants should reopen first determined by proximity to shelters capable of accommodating both staff and customers. This required a lot of detailed preparation, with senior McDonald’s executives deeply involved in discussions.
Collaboration with the company’s Global Intelligence Unit has resulted in the development of what Badritdinova describes as a “practical crisis manual” based on Ukraine’s unique experience but available to McDonald’s teams internationally. While McDonald’s Ukraine had a number of contingency plans in place prior to Russia’s February 2022 invasion, the scale of the crisis created a wide range of practical issues that nobody had anticipated. For example, Badritdinova recalls that during the chaos of the initial evacuation process in the early days of the invasion, some managers took restaurant keys with them as they relocated to other cities or left Ukraine entirely. “We now have a very detailed step-by-step guide to dealing with major crises. Unfortunately, it is a work in progress and is still being regularly updated,” she says.
Restaurants reopen
The first Ukrainian restaurants to reopen were located in Kyiv due to the close proximity of McDonald’s warehousing and management hubs. Next came stores in the west of the country, furthest from the front lines. In spring 2023, the wave of reopenings spread across southern and eastern Ukraine to cities including Odesa and Dnipro. By July 2023, more than 90 McDonald’s restaurants were open, compared to a prewar figure of over 100. This figure includes reopened stores and also brand new restaurants.
In an industry where employee turnover is traditionally high, there were no major problems in staffing reopened restaurants. At the start of the war, McDonald’s Ukraine made the decision to continue paying salaries to its approximately 10,000 staff and providing other forms of support while maintaining a regime of daily contact with all employees. Badritdinova says many members of the McDonald’s Ukraine team were eager to return to work and emerged as key advocates of restaurant reopenings. In some cases, staff from restaurants located in front line or Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine were able to take up similar positions with stores elsewhere in the country, with the company offering relocation.
Reopened restaurants initially worked in delivery-only mode before moving to host diners once again. All of Ukraine’s McDonald’s restaurants currently operate in line with strict safety protocols. In the event of an air raid alarm, staff are trained to shut down restaurants entirely and help customers evacuate. Initially, the evacuation procedure was designed to take a maximum of 15 minutes, but it has proved possible to reduce this time frame to just seven minutes. Once the air raid threat has passed and the “all clear” signal has been received, restaurants typically reopen within an hour.
Logistical challenges
While the security of customers and staff is understandably paramount, it was far from the only consideration for Badritdinova and her team as they approached the challenge of reopening restaurants. Menus were initially simplified to ensure quality standards were maintained and in order to avoid any potential supply shortages. Luckily, many local suppliers had continued to operate throughout the initial months of the invasion, while others reopened alongside McDonald’s. According to Badritdinova, between 50% and 60% of McDonald’s ingredients are currently sourced locally in Ukraine, compared to around 70% prior to the invasion.
Humanitarian aid initiatives
McDonald’s Ukraine has also put its logistical networks to good use as part of the company’s wartime humanitarian aid initiatives. Badritdinova recalls the striking spirit of volunteerism she witnessed among members of the McDonald’s team during the early months of the war, and speaks admiringly of their desire to help out in any way they could. In spring 2022, McDonald’s Ukraine decided to implement a number of humanitarian projects together with Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC), where the company is a founding partner, alongside the company’s network of partners and Ukrainian charities.
The flagship initiative has been the provision of basic foodstuffs to Ukrainians in need, with more than 225,000 specially prepared food kits distributed by July 2023 worth more than UAH 86 million. Whenever possible, these efforts have sought to support the most vulnerable sections of Ukrainian society, including people living in recently liberated regions of the country and those impacted by the June 2023 destruction of Kakhovka Dam in southern Ukraine. “We decided to build on our strengths, and one of our key strengths is our supply chain expertise,” notes Badritdinova. “We are a food company, so it makes sense for us to focus on food.”
A culture of partnership has been central to the humanitarian projects undertaken by McDonald’s in Ukraine, says Badritdinova. She explains that the large-scale Food Kit program was possible due to the engagement of partners, with 24 companies providing foodstuffs or performing logistical work to make sure kits were distributed via 350 charity organizations to where they were most needed. McDonald’s and RMHC contributed funds and volunteer support, while long-standing business partners offered a range of support. HAVI Logistics Ukraine provided storage for food; packaging suppliers Alpha Pack provided facilities for the packing and storage of food kits, while their team also joined as volunteers to help with the packing process; fries supplier Farm Frites began sending pallets from the first days of the invasion and also made a charitable contribution; Huhtamaki provided paper products and cups; ARYZTA (supplier of McDonald’s Global) supported the program through charitable contributions from the Irish, Spanish, and Polish chapters, while ARYZTA in Poland served as a hub where pallets with products from different parts of the world arrived from other branches of the company. This is a far from comprehensive list but it reflects the scale of the partnership over the past eighteen months. With millions of Ukrainians still in need of support, McDonald’s urges partners to maintain this engagement.
New Ukrainian restaurants
In addition to ongoing aid initiatives and the reopening of existing restaurants, McDonald’s Ukraine has also completed construction work on six new restaurants during the past eighteen months. These new venues were all planned and commissioned prior to the full-scale Russian invasion, and have now opened their doors to the Ukrainian public.
Badritdinova says she is already looking ahead to the postwar period with preliminary plans in place for further growth. One of the company’s recently opened new venues is the first of its kind to be located on a major Ukrainian highway. With Ukrainians now spending so much time on the road, Badritdinova anticipates there could be demand for up to sixty such roadside restaurants across the country. “The potential in Ukraine is huge,” she says. “We are considering major expansion across Ukraine when the war is over, as the safety of our crew and customers remains our priority.”
Looking back at the turbulent past year-and-a-half, Badritdinova insists she was not surprised by the international media interest in the reopening of the fast food giant’s restaurants in Ukraine, and notes that she had already been contacted by many leading outlets in the months leading up to the reopening of the first venues in Kyiv. She believes the overwhelming reaction from the Ukrainian public reflects the position McDonald’s occupies in the country’s collective imagination. “During this period, we realized how much the McDonald’s brand means to Ukrainians, and we give back to the community more than ever before” says Badritdinova. “This affection for the brand is what marketing executives dream about and we have it for real. McDonald’s is an international brand but in each country it remains local to the communities it serves. When we announced that we would be reopening, Ukrainians saw it as a signal that ‘normality’ was returning and we could continue with our everyday lives.”
About the interviewee: Yuliya Badritdinova is Managing Director of McDonald’s in Ukraine, Czech Republic, and Slovakia