McDonald's Ukraine Ltd. will reinstate its breakfast menu in the city of Kyiv and the surrounding region next week, company representatives announced at a press breakfast on Friday.

"We have continuously assessed whether we could bring back breakfasts, and we've had several crucial discussions over the past three years... The key challenges we faced were primarily air raid alerts and, most importantly, the unpredictability of when they would occur," explained Oleksandr Bogorodov, CFO of McDonald's operations in Ukraine, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, as reported by an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent at the event.

Another obstacle, according to Bogorodov, was that before 2022, breakfast was only available until 10 AM. However, following the invasion and the increased risk of new attacks from the aggressor country, operationally offering breakfast became extremely difficult due to air raid alarms, limited order and serving times, and the increase in food waste.

The third major challenge was power supply restrictions, particularly with frequent outages, which prevented restaurants from ensuring uninterrupted service. Bogorodov noted that about 95% of McDonald's locations are now equipped with diesel generators.

When considering the return of the breakfast menu, the company focused on adapting operational processes, supply chains, and staff training, given the natural employee turnover.

Dmytro Korbut, the company's Operations Director, added that the breakfast menu will include eight types of McMuffins, two types of toasts, and three wraps, along with several items from the main menu. However, there will be no bacon omelet or full breakfast, as these dishes are more complex to prepare and require additional time.

"Tasty and affordable breakfast items will be available at all McDonald's locations except for 12 restaurants in Poltava, Dnipro, Kremenchuk, Kryvy Rih, Kropyvnytsky, and Oleksandria. The primary reason is the frequent air raid alerts in these areas, which complicate the transition from the breakfast menu to the main menu," the company stated.

Breakfast will also not be available at 11 locations in food courts within shopping malls, as their operating hours do not allow for effective breakfast service.

Currently, the breakfast menu is already available in Lviv, Lutsk, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Yaremche, Kovel, Rivne, Khmelnytsky, Chernivtsi, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Hlybochytsia, Chernihiv, and Odesa.

The company also reported that within the first week of reintroducing breakfast items, sales exceeded 2021 figures by 80%. McDonald's continues to work on expanding breakfast availability to other cities, including Dnipro and Kropyvnytsky.

Earlier, the company conducted a three-week breakfast trial in Vinnytsia to analyze the new morning menu's demand among customers. The test assessed actual sales volumes and forecasts for the initial launch period, as well as the necessary quantity of products and resources to better integrate the breakfast menu into restaurant operations. During this trial, sales volumes exceeded expectations by 34%.