McDonald’s had laid down strict conditions for conducting fresh new franchisee partner for north and east India.

McDonald’s has appointed entrepreneur Sanjeev Agrawal as developmental licensee for its operations for north and east India. Prior to this announcement he was the promoter of Delhi-based MM Agrawal Group, within in the span of nine months it brought out former partner Vikram Bakshi’s stake in their joint venture.
 
 “We have aggressive plans for McDonald’s North and East and our key focus will be to turn around the business,” Agrawal told. “We are looking at scale investments to re-furbish all the outlets".

Moon Beverages is Coca-Cola India’s largest franchisee bottler. Barry Sum, director, corporate relations, at McDonald’s Asia, confirmed the development.
 
 Officials aware of the developments said McDonald’s had laid down strict conditions for conducting fresh new franchisee partner for north and east. Suitors for the partnership included RP Sanjiv Goenka Group and Bird Group, besides Amit Jatia-led Hardcastle.

Holding the mass attention with its aggressive pocket-savvy pricing, McDonald’s being one of the largest players in the fast food service space in the country. The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) evaluates that the food services sector will touch Rs. 5.5 lakh crore by FY21, up from Rs. 4 lakh crore in 2018-19.

After a long drawn legal battle which lasted nearly six years, McDonald’s India and McDonald’s Global Markets LLC had bought out Bakshi’s stake in their joint venture Connaught Plaza Restaurants Ltd (CPRL) in last year in an out-of-court settlement. McDonald’s India took over the management of CPRL and has been running its 165 stores on its own.

In December last year, Agrawal’s Moon Beverages had bought out Coca-Cola-owned bottling partner Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages’ (HCCB’s) bottling territories in Delhi-NCR and Western UP. McDonalds’s and Coca-Cola also have a long-standing exclusive global beverage partnership.