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Russian Railways has selected Sbarro, KFC, Sushi and other major restaurants to provide catering services in food courts at train terminals across the country, a news report said Monday.
Four major food operators — Holdings, G.M.R. Hospitality Planet, Savelovsky and Spektr — will invest about 2 billion rubles ($66 million) in cooperation with the state rail monopoly, Kommersant said.
The first food courts will appear at Moscow's train terminals and include Il Patio, Yolki-Palki and Subway, in addition to Planeta Sushi, Sbarro and KFC.
Zurab Mutiyev, CEO of the Russian Railways' subsidiary in charge of catering, was quoted as saying that the revenue from leasing commercial property to restaurant chains will be directed toward the modernization of the terminals. Russian Railways plans to allocate 10,000 square meters of commercial space to food courts in Moscow alone.
The average rate of commercial space lease in Moscow starts from 30,000 rubles per square meter per year.
Rostislav Ordovsy-Tanayevsy Blanko, CEO of Rosinter, the owner and operator of Il Patio and Planeta Sushi, said the company plans to open 13 restaurants at Moscow's five main train terminals in two years.
Other operators did not say immediately how many restaurants they planned to open.
The restaurants expect the payback period for their investments in food courts at train terminals to vary from two to four years, depending on the restaurant's location and the terminal's passenger capacity.
According to industry statistics, 1 billion visits are made to Russia's 351 train terminals every year.
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