Burger King, which long ago lost out to McDonald’s as #1 fast-food burger chain in France, has a double-pronged plan for getting back in the ring: It’s bought out the 400+ French outlets of the Belgian chain Quick, and it’s entering the halal fast-food market to serve France’s 5 million Muslim residents.
French competition authorities last week approved the takeover by Burger King, which has only 30 restaurants in France, saying “this deal does not harm competition. They did require Burger King to back out of the part of the deal that would have covered Quick outlets in Corsica. MacDonalds has 1200 stores across France, one of the top 10 countries for Mickey D.
While most of the Quick outlets will be converted to Burger Kings, about 40 will keep the Quick name and become France’s first large-scale halal fast-food outlet. Menu items with bacon and other pork products will be dropped, and only halal-certified beef and chicken will be used. Quick already has 20 successful halal stores in France, so the changeover should be easy to manage.
