Mexican bakery firm Grupo Bimbo has formed a joint venture in the central Asian country of Kazakhstan with Food Town, which supplies buns to fast-food restaurant chain McDonald’s.
The venture with Food Town, which is also a franchise of McDonald’s, has been set up with the Mexico-listed firm’s subsidiary Bimbo QSR. Grupo Bimbo said in a statement it will hold a 51% share in the project. No financial terms were provided.
The JV “strengthens the manufacturing footprint of Bimbo QSR and aligns its relationship with the quick-service restaurant (QSR) clients in Central Asia”, according to the statement.
“It is our priority to meet the needs of our QSR customers worldwide and we will continue to invest in our business to achieve it,” said Mark Bendix, the president of Bimbo QSR. “This operation in Kazakhstan is well-positioned to meet the growing demand of our customers in the region.”
Bimbo said the JV is expected to be operational before the end of the first quarter and extends the group company’s global footprint to 33 countries spread throughout the “Americas”, Europe, Asia and Africa.
In Asia as a whole, Bimbo said the QSR industry is expected to deliver a compound annual growth rate of 8.9% by 2023.
Bimbo’s product range includes fresh and frozen bread, buns, cookies, cakes, English muffins, bagels, pre-packaged foods, tortillas, salty snacks and confectionery, amongst others.
