The leader of the Russian fast food market McDonald's is preparing to launch the first joint service points with Sberbank.
According to Alexander Vedyakhin, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of the State Bank, within the framework of the joint project, a fundamentally new service format will be tested in several regions at once, including in Central Russia, including Moscow.
It is expected that the first joint branches of Sberbank with the McDonald's restaurant chain will open in the second half of 2019. Currently, the question is being worked out in what format the combined service enterprises will operate. According to Vedyakhin, both the bank and the restaurant need fairly large areas to operate.
A Sberbank representative notes that client flows are declining against the backdrop of a global trend. In the next three to five years, traffic in bank branches around the world may be reduced, presumably by 30%. In this regard, the bank is interested in finding new solutions to attract customers to its own branches. Cooperation with one of the most popular brands in the food & beverage market can be one of the high-quality solutions in the search for additional sources of audience attraction.
At the same time, the bank is considering the possibility of cooperation with other companies. In the near future, Sberbank expects to introduce "many interesting partnerships."
The launch of joint service points of Sberbank and McDonald's is part of the companies' strategic partnership. Currently, the bank provides acceptance of bank cards in most restaurants of the chain. Partnerships will also develop in the areas of acquiring, technical analysis of consumer behavior, as well as accelerating cashless payments.
On the possibility of launching joint branches with McDonald's Sberbank first reported in June, when information appeared in the media that the parties were developing an interesting concept to combine client flows. In the fall of 2018, the state bank for the first time reported a decrease in traffic in branches. The head of Sberbank, German Gref, noted that the network could only be saved by turning it into a retail supermarket that would ensure "the sale of all ecosystem products."