Why McDonald's Is Set to Open 20 New Restaurants in Denmark

Danes may love the New Nordic cuisine and the high-end restaurants, but apparently, they also love a good Big Mac. McDonald’s Denmark CEO Joachim Knudsen said that they’ve received a positive feedback from their guests so, now they’re planning to open 20 new McDonald’s restaurants all over Denmark.

There are already 88 outlets of the renowned fast food restaurant chain in the country, and it’s estimated that they attract approximately 170,000 customers daily. That’s probably what Knudsen meant by ‘positive feedback’.

The new McDonald’s restaurants will open over the next five years in both cities and provincial towns. Judging from the long queues at McDonald’s restaurants, especially on Saturday nights, that’s probably good news for locals. Danes may love savouring a healthy smørrebrød with salmon and vegetables on top, but after a night out, they certainly prefer a filling cheeseburger and a good portion of French fries.

While many choose to hit the city’s durum and falafel restaurants that stay open until the early morning hours, others prefer to grab a McDonald’s meal, even if that means they have to wait in a long line in order to get it. Especially the fast food restaurants located in the city centre are always packed during the weekends, and if you use a public bus after 2am, you’ll notice that sometimes there are more McDonald’s paper bags than passengers.

So, the fact that Danes are already fans of the popular American fast food restaurants makes us wonder if the opening of 20 more outlets in the country will lead to an increase in fast food consumption. We can’t tell for sure if there are more people who would like to get a Big Mac but don’t have a restaurant close by or just don’t want to wait for at least 20 minutes in the queue. We all know, though, that when we get the after-midnight munchies, having a McDonald’s restaurant close to our place makes it even more difficult to resist grabbing a fast-food meal.

The 20 new McDonald’s restaurants will be founded by the British investor Guy Hands, who since last year owns the rights to operate McDonald’s in Scandinavia. Today in the region, there are already 400 restaurants of the renowned fast food chain.