Business Opportunities in Fast Food Sector in Turkey
Turkey with a crowded population of over 70 million people is certainly one of the most promising markets for consumption.
Until a few decades ago, a great majority of Turks had hardly any chance to use products of foreign origin as far as consumer goods were concerned. Whereas today one can find an unbelievable wide range of any kind of such goods available in European markets.
The case with fast food business is no different in the sense Turks have grown a real strong interest in fast food especially since the launching of Mc Donald’s in Turkey a few decades ago. The taste was very much liked by young people in specific after which many others such as Burgerking, Dominos Pizza, Little Ceasar’s etc. have also started opening restaurants one after the other.
Today, chains like Mc Donald’s and Burgerking are operating in this territory with about 500 restaurants each.
In an interview with the top executive of the biggest foreign chain in Turkey we learn that following points are of top importance to achieve success in this very fast developing market;
QUESTION: What are the most important factors for success in fast food sector in Turkey?
Size is among major points that matters. That is you need to target a minimum number of shops enough to show your presence in the market and make sure your product is available across a wide enough territory.
Operational excellence is also crucial; This means you need to provide a real satisfactory service in your restaurants covering points such as “making sure customers do not have to wait too long, standard products at all spots etc”
And at the end of the day price competitiveness would be a crucial advantage as well.
QUESTION: Is taste an important factor?
It certainly is important. However, the image is equally important. For instance if you are offering an American product you need to make sure the name is right and it matches the image.
QUESTION: We know that Mc Donald’s attribute great importance to location. Do you believe this is of first priority?
Good location is basic for success. In fact, this is one of the reasons our group has been very successful in the fast food sector. Thanks to our construction and real estate group we have had the opportunity to get the best locations in big cities such as Istanbul. This ensures a minimum amount of turnover as there are certain crowds passing by the location each day.
QUESTION: Do you think such international operations contribute to Turkish economy and Turkey in general?
They certainly do.. They should do so in any case. For instance our group has contributed in many aspects, so far such as;
Training and working together with farmers in upgrading their production facilities and assist them to grow our vegetables such as (lettuce, potatoes etc) we use in our restaurants. We even supplied the seeds for a quality and standard production. Such producers have reached the opportunity to enter our supplier list worldwide which in return has enabled them to supply our restaurants in countries other than Turkey (such as Greece, Romania etc) as well.
On the other hand, we have trained over 10 thousand young people in our TRAINING ACADEMY in Istanbul as well.
As would be understood from above quick opinion, provided the location is well chosen, price is correctly calculated and the taste matches with the local taste there is no reason a new comer in the said sector would not get a satisfactory share from this market.
Editor (Former Marketing Executive)
Business Turkey Today
