McDonald’s switches to MHP poultry in Ukraine

The move is called to tackle the supply bottlenecks that constrained sales of chicken products in previous years, Yulia Badritdinova, CEO of McDonald’s branch in Ukraine, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, recently unveiled.

In an interview with Forbes Ukraine, Badritdinova disclosed that the share of chicken products in McDonald’s Ukrainian menu was lower compared with other European countries since the company had no opportunity to import it in the required quantities.

Veterinary restrictions on poultry imports

Badritdinova shed light on the challenges McDonald’s faced with chicken imports in Ukraine. She explained that the Ukrainian authorities had imposed various veterinary restrictions on poultry imports from multiple countries, which significantly limited the company’s ability to source chicken from its usual suppliers.

Mcdonald’s entered into cooperation with MHP in 2021 when the poultry company started delivering poultry strips to the US chain’s Ukrainian restaurants. Badritdinova added that the process of MHP adapting its production under McDonald’s requirements was long.

Badritdinova indicated that in the first stage, MHP poultry cutlets will be introduced in several restaurants in Ukraine in the test mode, and later, the entire chain plans to switch to MHP poultry.

The move is generally in line with McDonald’s strategy of increasingly relying on local suppliers. Badritdinova estimated that the company sources roughly 60% of raw materials for its Ukrainian restaurants from the local market.

Bouncing back from the red zone

The transition to local supplies may help McDonald’s bolster its financial health in Ukraine. Badritdinova shared the financial performance of McDonald’s in Ukraine, highlighting the impact of the past few years’ turbulence. In 2022, the company generated revenue of UAH 3.2 billion (US$80 million) and a net loss of UAH 2 billion (US$50 million). In 2023, revenue jumped to UAH 12.9 billion (US$324 million), and the company generated a net profit of UAH 1 billion (US$25 million).

McDonalds shut down all restaurants in Ukraine after the Russian troops crossed the Ukrainian border in February 2022. Since September 2022, the company gradually re-opened 60% of its restaurants in the central and western parts of the country and added around 10 new doors to its chain, which is now comprised of 101 establishments.

Meanwhile, the company still refrains from resuming operations in the eastern and southern regions. According to Badritdinova, restaurants in Kharkiv, Kherson, and Mykolaiv remain shut, and in general, the number of customers across the chain is nearly 30% below the pre-war level.