Burger King can't shut down its 800 restaurants in Russia due to its franchise arrangement, so I guess you can't really Have It Your Way.
Background: Companies have been pulling out of Russia in droves (Maccas, Apple, Starbucks, Netflix...). But some, like Burger King, have stayed open.
What happened: Burger King has a local partner in Russia that runs its restaurants. And this independent operator is refusing to shut down the 800 restaurants in the country.
What else: It just goes to show international franchising - which is a common method of expansion - can be risky business.
💡 Franchising is when companies sell the rights to their branding and products, but leave the actual operations to individual owners.
💡 In this case, Burger King's parent company says there is no legal clause that lets it change the contract it has in place with its independent owners. Unless it gets the Russian gov involved... which is about as likely as Neighbours getting saved from its axing.
💡 So, while they want to suspend Burger King operations in Russia... due to the limitations of the franchise model, they just can't.
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