By Ségolène Poirier, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – José Valledor, president of McDonald’s Brazil since august 2011, says the fast-food company wants to expand as the Brazilian economy grows. The world-known fast-food brand plans on targeting the new middle class (Class C and D) and the mid-sized cities in Brazil in the coming years.
McDonald’s Brazil is currently responsible for fifty percent of the income for Arcos Dorados, the giant Argentine owner of the McDonald’s brand in twenty countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Brazil.
With the perspective of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, which McDonald’s is sponsoring, Mr. Valledor says the company has a new clear target: the medium-sized cities, those with about 80,000 inhabitants.
“There are approximately 350 municipalities of this size in the country and we are only present in 150 of them,” he says.
To realize these projects and to stay on top of the concurrence, McDonald’s Brazil has announced a plan to hire four thousand employees across the country. They will join the existing 50,000, keeping the company’s position as one of the largest employers in Brazil.
McDonald’s is the world’s largest chain of hamburger fast-food restaurants, operating franchises in 119 countries. The company began in 1940s in California, and the first branch of the franchise in South America was opened in Brazil in 1979.
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