With the boom in demand for food delivery, Costa Rican restaurant owners claim that their companies have given up part of the profits to assume the costs of making alliances with delivery applications.
Since last March, when the first cases of covid-19 were reported in Costa Rica, consumers have been subjected to severe restrictions on mobility, which has led to transformations in the forms of marketing.
Pizza Hut, KFC and Subway are some of the fast food chains that plan to invest in opening new restaurants during 2020.
The Pizza Hut chain plans to invest close to $1.8 million in the opening of six new stores this year. The points of sale could be located in the areas of Aserrí, Paraíso de Cartago and San Ramón de Alajuela.
KFC chain will invest $3 million to open three new restaurants and $1 million to remodel other locations already operating in the country.
The company reported that the new restaurants, which will begin operations in 2019, will be located in Escazú, Limón and Heredia, and those that will be remodeled are located in downtown San José, Alajuela and in Multicentro de Desamparados.
In Costa Rica, fast food restaurant chains plan to open at least 14 new sales points in different areas of the country next year.
Some of the companies planning to expand their restaurant chain in 2019 include: Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Subway, KFC and QSR International, and their key commitment to further expansion will be to move into smaller locations.
In the last three years nine fast food chains opened at least 67 points of sale, both in the Greater Metropolitan Area and in rural areas of the country.
The fast food market in Costa Rica is not showing signs, at least for now, of being saturated.The constant opening of new points of sale by different chains reflects the growth potential that this segment of the restaurant market still has.
The KFC franchise has announced that it will invest $5 million this year in the opening of two new restaurants, three local self service branches and the remodeling of four existing ones.
The company plans to fully remodel the branches on Avenida 3 Calle 1 in San Jose as well as the Former Embassy, and the branches in the Ruins of Cartago, Tibás and Jacó.In addition, its representatives announced that they will be building two new branches, one in the Greater Metropolitan Area and one outside it.
Thirteen fast food franchises will be opening 40 new stores this year, after 2015 saw the arrival of some new players and the departure of others.
A survey carried out by Nacion.com on the franchising industry revealed that about 40 new stores will generate 360 jobs this year, compared to the 654 redundancies recorded in fast food restaurants segment in 2015.
The fast food franchise KFC Costa Rica has been acquired by the Mexican Group Inversor Intelectiva, which plans to open five new restaurants between 2015 and 2016.
One of the major changes made by the new owner is to implement, in all branches operating in the country, the model used worldwide by KFC, called In Store Prepared (ISP).
The chain of fast food restaurants Quiznos, operating since 2004 with twelve outlets, has closed its operations.
The union of restaurants in Guatemala confirmed the closure of the chain of US origin, which in March 2014 began the process of acceding to Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Salvador Contreras, union representative, told Elperiodico.com.gt that "... officially no reason for the closure is known or if there is an operation with firms that are replacing the brand."
Fast food chains have announced investments of $13 million in the opening of nine chicken restaurants and improvements in other infrastructure.
In order to meet the growing the demand for chicken meals, the chains KFC, Rostipollos, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and As will make investments in 2013 which together total $12.7 million.
According to Juan Carlos Rodriguez, manager of the KFC brand (represented by the firm QRS International), the chain has 30 stores in the country and opened its first restaurant in Limon. In addition it will have branches in Tibás, Desamparados and Juan Santamaria International Airport, for which it is designating $8 million.
In Panama, the population’s increased purchasing power and the economic dynamism are driving new investments by major fast food chains.
The companies Franquicias Panameñas, S.A., KFC and Pizza Hut are to invest $7.5 million in the construction of new stores and the refurbishment of several existing ones.
"Meanwhile, the restaurant chain McDonald's has among its immediate goals the construction of two complete branches in Arraiján, in the western sector of the metropolitan region. The first of these is in its final stage of construction and is located in Arraiján, while the second will be located in the parking section of the Westland Mall shopping center, where the company already has a space in the food court", noted an article in Capital.com.pa.
While Chili's and Buffalo Wild Wings open their first branches in Costa Rica, the established Applebee's, Subway, Quizno's, McDonald's, KFC and Teriyaki have increased their investments.
Before the end of the year, Hooters will open its fourth restaurant on Paseo Metropolis, in Cartago, east of San José, with an investment of $1 million.
By 2014 the franchise hopes to double the number of stores nationwide.
The five locations opened in the first half of the year will be joined by nine more before year end.
By the end of the year the franchise which has been operating in the country for seventeen years will have fifty-five branches outperforming its competitor Mc Donalds which has forty-four.
Meanwhile Quizno's, its nearest competitor, has grown by 50% over the past five years.
The opening and remodeling of restaurants, the closing of others and the entry into the market of new competitors is shaking up the market.
QSR International, which operates Quizno's in the country, has added fast-food chain Smashburger to its portfolio with three locations opening in 2012.
Meanwhile Subway, which has already opened three new outlets this year, plans to open three more by December.
While waiting for new foreign franchises to enter the market, domestic chains are expanding their operations.
More stores in different parts of the country, new brands and increasing competition are defining the chicken restaurant market.
This year alone there are plans to open at least two outlets under the Nicaraguan franchise Tip Top, which last year tried its hand in the center of the province of Alajuela.