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Grand Metropolitan’s fast-food restaurant chain Burger King is to

pull all its restaurants out of France following a review of its

European operations.

However, it insisted it was not reducing its focus on Europe as a whole

and would instead concentrate on growing the business in the UK, Germany

and Spain.

The burger chain has a total of 39 outlets in France, the majority of

which are in the Paris area. Of these, 16 are company owned, with the

remainder owned by franchisees.

It is expected that all the French restaurants will close by the end of

the year. Burger King has 973 outlets in Europe and the Middle East and

has rapidly expanded, opening 300 restaurants in the region during the

past two years.

One industry analyst said: ’France’s economy has been difficult and the

burger market has been tough. Last year, Burger King made a loss on the

European business so the news is not too great a surprise.’