Rostic’s franchisee prepares to launch ready-meal production in Moscow

City Restaurants, a major Rostic’s franchisee, is preparing to launch ready-meal production in Moscow. Sostav reported the project on 3 November, citing information published by Shopper’s. For the franchising community, it is an example of a restaurant franchisee diversifying into a related business: the company is establishing a separate production operation rather than focusing solely on expanding its restaurant network.

What is known about the new project

The facility will be located at 6 Mytishchinsky Proyezd. In June, Manufaktura Vkusa, a limited liability company specialising in prepared foods and meals, was registered at this address. City Restaurants is its sole owner. The website tastefactory.ru is also registered to City Restaurants, although it was not yet operational when the report was published.

Recruitment provides further evidence that preparations are under way. The company is looking for a food technologist, a quality specialist and a head of procurement. The vacancies highlighted by Shopper’s describe the project as starting ‘from scratch’. This is an important distinction: the report concerns the creation of a new business operation, not an existing facility with confirmed production volumes.

The published information does not specify a production start date, capacity or an approved product range. The current stage is therefore best described as preparation for launch. Registering the company and recruiting specialists confirm that work on the project is progressing, but do not in themselves mean that ready meals are already being delivered to customers.

The separate legal entity makes ownership clear: Manufaktura Vkusa belongs to the franchisee, City Restaurants. However, the published information does not indicate that the new facility belongs to the owners of the Rostic’s brand, or that all its future output will be sold under that brand.

Retail chains are a potential sales channel

One of the clearest signs of a retail focus appears in the job description for the prospective quality specialist. Their responsibilities will include handling complaints from retail chains, including X5. This indicates the type of work the company envisages for the new facility, but does not confirm that a supply contract has been signed.

Rostic’s already supplies ready meals to the Magnit and Pyaterochka retail chains. Independent retail expert Mikhail Lachugin believes the new facility could be needed to scale up these supplies. It is important to distinguish between the established presence of the brand’s ready meals in retail and an expert’s suggestion about the future role of the City Restaurants facility.

Mikhail Burmistrov, chief executive of Infoline-Analytics, outlined other possible markets. In his view, the facility could produce ready meals and semi-prepared products for restaurants and cafés, including under customers’ own labels. He also suggested that the franchisee could launch its own brand.

The report therefore considers several scenarios: products for retail chains, supplies to foodservice businesses and the development of a separate brand. None has yet been presented as the company’s final, approved strategy. Assessing the project will depend on which customers and product formats are confirmed after launch.

Estimated investment and financial context

Mikhail Burmistrov estimates that establishing a production facility of around 2,500 square metres could require RUB 300–350 million. This excludes VAT and the purchase of property. The estimate covers equipment, building services and alterations to the premises.

This figure should not be treated as a disclosed budget from City Restaurants. It is an expert estimate of the cost of setting up a facility of that scale. Likewise, the figure of around 2,500 square metres is an assumption used in the estimate, rather than a separately confirmed specification for the planned facility.

The project is being prepared against a backdrop of mixed financial performance at the franchisee. In 2025, City Restaurants’ revenue rose by 13% to RUB 8.5 billion. At the same time, net profit fell by 85% to RUB 50 million.

These results show that rising turnover was accompanied by falling profit. However, the published information does not establish the reasons for this change or link it to preparations for the production facility. Nor is there any basis for claiming that the new project has already affected financial results or is certain to improve them in future.

What this means for the franchising community

The main point of interest in the City Restaurants story is its direction of expansion: a major restaurant franchisee is preparing to manufacture food and meals itself. Such a project could take the business beyond serving diners in its restaurants and into supplying other customers. The specific sales model, however, remains undecided.

The next meaningful milestones will be the facility’s actual launch, an announcement of its product range and confirmation of its distribution channels. These details will help establish whether production will support supplies of Rostic’s products, operate as a standalone business for the franchisee or combine several models.

The practical lesson for the franchising community is to separate confirmed company actions from possible scenarios when assessing projects of this kind. In this case, the creation of a legal entity and recruitment of a team are confirmed; the budget, customers and future role of the facility still require separate confirmation.