Franchise news

From Romania
The Nagyvárad-based chain La Piadineria dr Gusto is planning to enter the Hungarian market. The Romanian fast food chain is looking for a master franchise partner. Piadina is a speciality bread from the Italian province of Emilia Romagna. Piadina can be filled with all kinds of food. La Piadineria dr Gusto units have a certain number of standard products (at least 10), but guests can choose the filling for themselves.

Small chain with big plans
Vita Juice Bar, the first Hungarian smoothie chain, which has three units in Budapest at the moment, intends to open franchise units in Slovakia. They have already made contact with several potential master franchise partners.

Major investment
KFC has tripled the number of units in Hungary in the last two years. They have 15 units in Hungary at the moment. Their first restaurant originally opened 16 years ago, was reopened following modernisation and refurbishment on 17. May.

Leaving Goliath
Opening of the Siófok unit of Submarine (an offspring of the Subway chain) has been postponed owing to technical reasons. As the unit would only have opened for the second half of the short Balaton season, the franchiser and its franchise partner have decided to postpone the opening to the next season. Attention is now focused on the next unit to be opened in Budapest, which might be a Submarine Express without a kitchen of its own.

Loose alliance
The Semiramis chain is to open two new cafes in the summer. One will be located in Budapest, in Batthyány utca, while the other will be opened in Mosonmagyarovár. This will bring the total number of Hungarian units to 72. Semiramis is one of the founding members of the Hungarian Coffee Alliance, committed to promoting coffee culture in Hungary.