Despite how they sound or what they taste like, pork donuts are hitting store shelves relatively soon.
Fortunately for Americans and Europeans, Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins chains won't be selling their interesting concoction in the West. The pork donuts will be made exclusive for their Chinese patrons, in the hopes of expanding in the country with new 100 stores in the next two to three years. Dunkin' Donuts has approximately 150 chain stores in China to date.
"Donuts are a very flexible product. You can do savory donuts, you can do donuts with shredded pork -- that's in China," Chief Executive Officer Nigel Travis told Reuters in an interview. "We also have a range of other savory products that we have been testing and introducing country by country."
Choosing menu items for each country is crucial when operating in foreign markets. For example, pork donuts would not be a hot-ticket item in countries in the Middle Easte, where residents are predominately Muslim or in the West. By offering these culture-centric items, Dunkin' Donuts hopes it will increase its revenue and notoriety where it must compete in Asia with Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc, Starbucks Corp, McDonald's Corp and J.CO, an Indonesian donut and coffee chain, reported Reuters.
Other fast-food chains often utilize the same strategy when hoping to expand and remain in other markets.
The McDonald's menu varies from country to country and offer specialty items depending on where the fast-food chain is. In Asian nations, McDonald's usually a chicken-based menu with the only beef options being a Big Mac and other burgers. Other interesting menu items include the Shogun Burger, a pork patty with Teriyaki sauce, the McSpaghetti, spaghetti noodles served with tomato sauce and the McRice burger, a chicken or beef burger served with rice cakes.
To date, McDonald's has opened up 1,100 restaurants in China, second only to KFC, which leads all fast food with 3,200 locations in the emerging economy.
RESOURCE IBTimes
