just one single question why are foreign brands having such great success in Asia then to your mind?? I told you that Mc Do opened their 500th outlet there, Starbucks entered, KFC is there, Burger King, Pizza Hut and many other local brands are also there, all is there in Asia

Perhaps McD might have been more successful if they had come in before companies like Tantalizers, Sweet Sensation and Mr. Biggs had started up. I suspect that these companies are already so established in Nigeria that it would take a lot of marketing muscle to take away marketing share from them.

it has to be due to bureaucracy and corruption that these things close down so quickly in Naija. Is is true that Churches´s Chicken left Nigeria What a pity

Oh? So why are the existing fast food restaurants still in business?

How can it be that Nigerians are still stuck in time    We sometimes still behave like "bush people". a burger, even it is a Nigerian made one, oooo no not for me, I prefer my food next to the open smelly gutter with tons of nerve-wreaking flies around it because this was/is/will ever be Nigeria"!

What is your business with what Nigerians choose to eat? If people don't want to eat hamburgers, why should they be made to do so? And you seem to be saying that Nigerians have only two choices - the clean sanitary environment of McD's with their burgers, or the 'smelly gutter' environment of Nigerian restaurants with their local cuisine. This is patently false.

Everybody likes Western fast food, theme parks, highways and cool malls the world over. Why not Nigerians? Are we aliens

No - we're Nigerians. Deal with it.

so if a country doesn't have a McD then it isn't developed? I beg to differ.

This argument can be settled very quickly: All those supporters of McD get your money and start a franchise in Nigeria and then lets see how long you last for.

McD would rather buy a profitable company like tantalisers, with a proven business model, then start from scratch, they don't have the local knowledge and it would not justify the outlay.

Let's bet: If tantilisers( from what I hear) roll out across some choice capitals in Africa and make it a success then probably McD, or some other very large company, will buy them out.

Look at ABC Transport: the owner started it in his youth service and he has now sold a portion of the business to foreign investors for a very good chunk of change. These people aren't stupid.

this topic is mc stupid

Kazey, yes that is true, if a country does not have a MC Do it is "underdeveloped" in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of some renowned economists, too, it is as if you refuse to have Coca Cola or you have money and would prefer driving a car from TATA instead of a flashy BMW or sporty Porsche or Ferrari. It is as if you prefer living in your flimsy hut in the deep forest instead of moving to your fancy villa with swimming pool, Yacuzzi, tennis court and cool Plasma TV from Bang and Olufsen.

Mc Do is a global brand and everybody loves it. When Mc Donald´s is there it will send a signal to others that Nigeria is a vast consumers paradise crying to be exploited. Moreover, it doesn ´t stop us from creating our own (food) brands but the more competitition the better.

Someone said that Nigerians needn´t follow Asian examples, I agree with that partly , but as said a Mc Do in Nigeria will have Nigerian "flavours". It will be a Nigerian Mc Do and not an American one.

Moreover, if Nigerians don´t like MC Do , why do a lot of our countrymen joyfully spare their time at the various fast food joints in the UK?

Either you have Mc Do or you are out in this world!

Nigeria still lives in the 50´s in terms of retail sector and so on.


Moreover, who says that if we have MC Do or other fast food joints that nobody would continue to eat Nigerian food? Local food and Nigerian food have to exist side by side, , if we don´t want to have foreign things we could throw our Levi´s jeans into the dustbin and throw a bomb into Shoprite and burn down the palms forget about Tinapa project because all this is not Nigerian.

Ka, South Africa had their own local brands too and MC Do and others came in later and it was a success. The same is with Asian countries, they had their local brands before foreigners entered,

How can we remain satisfied with just three brands which are "only" local brands? Principles of market economy will never bear fruit in our motherland.


Just let me ask you something apart from Mc Do is their any fast food joint (Pizza hut, burger King, Dunkin Dougnuts, Baskin Robbins, seattles Best, Costa Coffee, Starucks, Magic Corn, Gloria Jean Coffee etcc, ) that you would advise people to consider for franchise in Nigeria or would you say dump them all?

I got this article for the sceptics out of businessdayonline, serious paper


Harrods, Wal-Mart, others head for Tinapa City

Businessday April 3rd, 2006

World famous department stores, Mac-Donalds, Wal-Mart, Harrods, and Marks and Spencer, among many others, have indicated very strong interest in the N43 billion Tinapa project in Calabar, regarded as Africa's premier business resort.


The foray by these world retail market players into the Nigerian market is in response to the commitment of the Cross River State government to the completion and commissioning of the first phase of the project by December, 2006.

According to the executive governor of the state, Donald Duke, whose administration is providing the infrastructure for the project, largely funded by private sector players, Tinapa will be ready by December, 2006. The final kitting by the major shop owners and operators will however, be completed by March 2007.

When phase one of the project is completed, the specific components that will form the foundation of the development of a leisure tourism market in Nigeria would have also been firmly rooted. Some of these components that would be visible in the first phase of the project will include a shopping complex comprising four wholesale emporiums, 300 retail outlets, a food court with take - away outlets, an administrative centre, a commercial sitting area, and a parking lot for approximately 3, 000 cars and coaches.

According to information from the project site, there will also be an "entertainment strip" leading out of the shopping complex.

This, BUSINESSDAY learnt, would feature a casino of international standard, five restaurants, a cinema complex with cinemas ranging from 104 to 340 seats each, a games arcade and ten-pin bowling alley, a children's play area and a fisherman's village with themed bars, night club and an arts and crafts village.

Duke confirmed in Calabar, weekend that the phase one aspect of the Tinapa project would be home to a 300-room budget hotel, leisure land and waterworld facility, wave pool, lazy river ride, picnic area, tennis courts, life guard tower, kiosks, change room facilities, volley ball courts, management offices, among other numerous facilities.

According to the project scheme, the second phase of the world-class business resort is envisaged to include a hotel and conference complex with a 200- room branded international four star hotel, a conference centre with a main ballroom seating up to 2,000 delegates, business and fitness centres. Also, it is designed to feature three boutique stores, expansion of leisure and entertainment facilities fitted with a quad biking track, an archery range and a fisherman's wharf, among other features.

Duke said the third phase of the mega project will cover the construction of a 150-room branded international four-star hotel, a luxury beach lodge with 30 -units, a luxury bush lodge, agritourism and ecotourism. When the Tinapa project becomes functional there would be a mutual driving and sustenance of tourism which the Cross River state government has taken with Agriculture as major footwalk in the effort to power growth and development in the state.

Everyone will be ordering Number 4

we dey kampe

There are three visible and tangible indicators of how developed a country is.

1. [/b]Internet connection speed.
[b]2. Number of American Fast food outlets like MCD and KFC or even Pizza Hut.
[b]3. [/b]No of Malls. (Carreforre, WALMART, TEXCO etc)

Mc Donalds might sell well in Nigeria because of the Yankee factor. But you will have to include some additional dishes like fried and gellof rice so that it won't be too alien to the people. And lastly, if you are trying to open a Mc Donald in Nigeria, don't go through the regular franchise license. You have to get in contact with their international office and tell them about the potential of opening a Mc Donalds in Nigeria.

@constantin, I'd like to know when last you were in Nigeria. We have industrious Nigerian companies building their own fast food brands, and succesfully too. Our very own Mr Biggs is even opening outlets in Ghana. Please, if the only yardstick you have for developemnet is excess-fat inducing muck from MacDonald's, Abeg hold am.

The Name McDONALDS sells everywhere even though the food is crap. Thats has and will always be McDonalds' strenght, their BRAND NAME. They started off with good food, now even fast food places that sell better quality foods here in the US don't record nearly as much sales as McDonalds.

Conclusion: It will sell like wildfire, even in NIGERIA. 

Mc-D will be a hit in Nigeria. Don’t worry about whether what they sell sucks. Most Nigerians by nature like to associate with brands. And Mc-D is one brand they will mostly yell for. The other brands listed are like your average “Kizzie Fried Chicken” that you will find along Romford Road in East London – Shoddy and poor imitations of the real thing. Nigerians are getting by with these poor brands, because they don’t have a better choice PERIOD.

Question is, Is McD a better choice or a better brand? You seem to have conceeded that it is a better brand.

Constantin:

Kazey, yes that is true, if a country does not have a MC Do it is "underdeveloped" in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of some renowned economists, too,

Constantain how old are you ? A little boy ? You seem to predicate your argument of bringing in MCD more on how we look to the world rather than on the practical usefulness and business of a MCD franchise in Nigeria. The world does not care a damm about you, stop trying to impress them by being like them and rather concentrate on what will be useful to you as an individual and as a Nation. MCD is useless to us.

it is as if you refuse to have Coca Cola or you have money and would prefer driving a car from TATA instead of a flashy BMW or sporty Porsche or Ferrari. It is as if you prefer living in your flimsy hut in the deep forest instead of moving to your fancy villa with swimming pool, Yacuzzi, tennis court and cool Plasma TV from Bang and Olufsen.

Accept this fact, we are Nigerians and we love our food. We loathe the Western food which gives nothing more than obesity and hypertension, compared to the wonderful ,energy giving,fresh and healthy meals in Nigeria. Americans and Britons are suffering from obesity.That is still a strange disease in Nigeria.You want to introduce it through McDonald. I will rather drive TATA and stay alive than cruise BMW at top speed and be dead in a jiffy.
By the way ,what makes you think Western food is better than Nigerian food. Don't tell me you feel so inferior before the white and you think your Nigerian heritage is inferior to the American heritage.

Mc Do is a global brand and everybody loves it.

Not true- I don't love McDonalds

Moreover, if Nigerians don´t like MC Do , why do a lot of our countrymen joyfully spare their time at the various fast food joints in the UK?

Wrong once more- I don't joyfully spend my time at fast food joints and lots of Nigerians don't spend time there either. In my office ,I and a fellow Nigerian practically don't bother with real launch- just snacks- because we are fed up with all the junk stuff they sell in fast food joints, including MCD. We wait till we get home to eat a proper meal.

Either you have Mc Do or you are out in this world!

I asked you before, how old are you ? Are you a child trying to imitate others ?
Where you born in Nigerian or America and are you trying to behave like a slave looking up to his master for approval ?Be yourself.Stop trying to be like others.Let others imitate you instead.

Nigeria still lives in the 50´s in terms of retail sector and so on.

When was the last time you were in Nigeria ?

Moreover, who says that if we have MC Do or other fast food joints that nobody would continue to eat Nigerian food? Local food and Nigerian food have to exist side by side, , if we don´t want to have foreign things we could throw our Levi´s jeans into the dustbin and throw a bomb into Shoprite and burn down the palms forget about Tinapa project because all this is not Nigerian.

I am sure you have never been to Nigeria. You seem to be suffused with an inferiority and "wannabe" mentality. ( no offence meant) but pleasse deal with it.We are Nigerians and we are happy with it.Stop trying to convince us to ditch our heritage for the American's.Their lifestyle is not better than ours. Go spend sometime in Nigeria and stop trying to force  Americanism on us from the US.

I do not why Nigerians are obsessed with having Mac Donalds in Nigeria.Personally i feel coughing out $450,000 to have macDonalds in nigeria does not worth it.Mac Donalds sucks ,why not Wal mart or Carrefour -world's biggest retailer in Nigeria.Instead of mac donalds, i will prefer KFC or Starbucks.

Funloving, my repsonse to you: you really made me laugh loudly.

Go out and travel a bit around. The world doesn ´t end in Enugu and Calabar and learn to read my postings with more care and stop to take thinsg at their faces value. MOREOVER MEET MORE NATIONALITIES AND TALK TO THEM IN ORDER TO BROADEN YOUR HORIZON INSTEAD OF INSULTING ME >
You have absolutely no idea about marketing, branding, (consumer) psychology, market priciples and its impact: Go to any well-stocked public library and enlarge your knowledge on those quintessential topics(

PS: I am not condeming Nigerian food, I eat it here in the uK regularly and very much love , too (I would never ever want to miss our beloved naija food!!!) , but I am also very (as most other Nigerians are) brand-conscious, modern, dynamic and cosmopolitan, and brands count in this world. "Have them or just leave the stage"! Mc Do will be a hit in Naija.

I think we are missing the point. My understanding is that someone will like to bring a Mc D franchise to Nigeria, and the question is whether this will be profitable. Of course it will, lets get real…

How do you know that? The almightly Walmart recently failed in South Korea:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/23/business/worldbusiness/23shop.html !

Constantin:


Go out and travel a bit around. The world doesn ´t end in Enugu and Calabar and learn to read my postings with more care and stop to take thinsg at their faces value. MOREOVER MEET MORE NATIONALITIES AND TALK TO THEM IN ORDER TO BROADEN YOUR HORIZON INSTEAD OF INSULTING ME >

I hope you realise I live in the UK as well. So travelling and meeting other nationalities is not the issue with me.
The issue is what good will McDonalds do to us as Nigerians. I guess  I do not consider myself a Briton or  a Westerner. I am first and foremost a Nigerian and take into consideration what is good for us as a people.Maybe you are different

I only took you on because you ridiculed us a people with your insinuations that because we don't have MCD in Nigeria we are backwards, underdeveloped and all such thrash.

I took you on because you think we must have MCD to prove to the world that we are modern and we are like them and I ask, why must we be like the West  and must it be through McDonalds that we prove we are cosmopolitan ? McDonald food that is known to cause obesity so much so, that the UK government is thinking of banning those junk food from schools.

@seun,

Fair enough, but Walmart/ASDA whatever, isnt a massive global brand. Popular in America yes, finding their feet in the UK via ASDA granted. But they don't make the list of the top 100 global brands. So I wouldnt use them as an example.

I am not into business but my point is if there is a mcdonald's in Nigeria i would not trust to go inside of it, because it is considered to be a wannabe(Mcdonalds) at the end of the day you might end up serving meat pie, puff, and donuts like the rest of the fastfood joints in nigeria, like Tantalizers and mr biggs, which i think they even serve better snacks than the original mcdonalds in the USA. The problem with nigerians is that we alwaays try to copy things from abroad, lets be original. There are blacks, white and they are Nigerians. Mcdonals in nigeria is a no NO>

so coo ooooo ooo llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

aloib, sup girl i don talk my own, nah business forum but i no send

i dey o, i'm thru wid exams

Bringing a product from overseas indicates a likelihood of trying to copy a lifestyle?

not really, afterall there's woolworth in Ghana

Well i think you should really seat behind a desk and plot a design of your own innovation that will make you known like Mcdonalds.
That's about thinking beyond others imagination.

If you a looking to bring a brand to Nigeria and dont have so much money or you do not want to sell shit food like McDonalds, then look at SUBWAY!

Find out more here:-

www.subway.com

Nigeria is not stable enough for a McDonald's.  So if you really have that urge for a Big Mac, you may wanna trot over to South Africa, Zimbabwe or Morocco for the nearest Mickey Ds.

In addition, you will need lots more than $45,000, as McDonald's requires that you ave $175,000 (not borrowed) for start-up costs.  Your total costs to open the restaurant, however, will be anywhere from $430,000 to $750,000, which goes to paying for the building, equipment, etc. Forty percent of this cost has to be from your own (non-borrowed) funds.

See http://money.howstuffworks.com/franchising1.htm

misanthrop:

Nigeria is not stable enough for a McDonald's.

is that stomach stability or what? I can hear the rumblings,

Why would you even use Western standards, ie developed and underdeveloped, to measure success? Have we as Black people not learned that we cannot rely on Western barometers to truly measure ourselves, lest we always come up short. For example, few Black people, especially Africans, are considered beautiful by Western standards. How about getting some pride and franchising a Nigerian restaurant in American or other Western countries? Just a thought.