McDonalds Corp, in contrast with struggling competitors and the overall retail market, plans to expand greatly in 2009 in Europe, a senior executive said on Friday.
Many restaurant and retail chains struggled in 2008, closing stores amidst the global economic downturn.
The fast food chain aims to remodel restaurants and open 240 new units across Europe totaling about 12,000 new jobs mostly in Spain, France, Italy, Russia and Poland, McDonald’s Europe president Denis Hennequin, according to the Financial Times and Forbes.
The expansion will cost McDonald’s an investment of $1.1 billion, almost half of its total capital allocated for the full year, Forbes notes.
