According to The Connexion:
“BURGER KING is coming back to France after 15 years away.The fast-food firm has announced plans for outlets at Marseille airport and one on the southbound A4 motorway at Reims. The sites will be run in partnership with Italian company Autogrill, which already manages 140 Burger King restaurants.
The chain, which has 12,600 restaurants worldwide, left in 1997 after failing to keep pace with the rapid expansion of rival McDonald’s which now has 1,200 branches in France.
Head of Autogrill in France Vincent Monnot said they have been looking at France – “a very important market” – for a long time and want to develop as fast as possible.
Burger King’s manager for the Mediterranean area, Leo Leon, said: “We are confident Autogrill will help introduce the Burger King brand to French travellers looking for high quality, tasty and good value food.”
The chain will offer standards like the Whopper as well as some new menu items aimed at meeting French tastes.
It has not yet commented as to whether it also hopes to open town centre restaurants, an area in which Autogrill does not specialise.” ###
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS ?
Burger K used to be my favorite because of the charcoal taste, but I THINK i’m over that fast food part of my life. Happy New Year to you and your blog!
Agree – the charcoal taste set BK apart from the others, but I haven’t eaten a hamburger in over 15 years. All the best to you in the new year!
My memory has just been jogged. I recently discovered a very acceptable hamburger in Nice, certainly in another category from the burger kings. It’s called the Happy Diner, and I found it surprisingly good. If you are at all curious, it has a well-tended web site (www.50happydiner.com) and popular facebook page. However, I see that it also has some virulent tripadvisor enemies (as does the Ritz and the Negresco!)
Thanks – a friend mentioned this diner to me, but I haven’t checked it out yet.
The very first time I was in France (1993), there were no McDonald’s restaurants, at least not in Paris. But there was a BK, which I went to once, just for the fun of ordering red wine with my burger! (But I actually ended up liking the Quick chain better for burgers.) Now, knowing and appreciating more about French cuisine, I’m not sure how I feel about more fast-food places popping up… but I don’t want McD’s to have a monopoly either.
Thanks – I remember the BK in Paris (never went there) – never went to Quik (originated in Belgium) and only once to McDo just to research what they offered here (bought only a cup of fresh fruit). Agree – not sure if more competition is a good thing or not, and I much prefer French cuisine too.
Hmm. I’ll be interested to see how BK try to compete with McDo’s. Maybe they’ll go with the “Choice for a New Generation”-type message that Pepsi had in the 80s.
Best wishes, Alex
Burger wars!