It can take the company two or even three times as long to open an outlet in California than in Arizona, for instance.

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According to the AFP news agency, McDonald's will open the outlet in the middle of next year, near the Golden Temple in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in northern India.

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The company will also open a second outlet of its Asian-cuisine venture, ShopHouse Kitchen, in Los Angeles, in the first half of 2013 itself.

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The chain plans to open another vegetarian outlet in north-western India, near the Vaishno Devi cave shrine in Kashmir, which is a Hindu pilgrimage site that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.

BBC: McDonald's opens vegetarian-only restaurant

In both cases, famous Tokyo-based chefs (Masahiro Yoshitake and Seiji Yamamoto, respectively) decided to branch out and open a second outlet outside of Japan, choosing Hong Kong as the sweet spot, partly because they can easily split their time between their two restaurants, but also because they can use the same fresh ingredients flown in daily.

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Mr. Issa said he decided to open up a Manhattan outlet because of interest from landlords and brokers constantly trying to lure them over the river.

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The company acquired the retail chains Smart Group Holdings, Cashbuild, Checkers and Stuttafords and in the same year, Wiese led the company to open its first retail outlet in Scotland.

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Administrators said factory outlet stores would remain open and the company would attempt to fulfil existing customer orders where possible.

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Despite the on-site competition from Ramsay and the soon-to-be-opened Hakkasan (an outlet of the famed Chinese restaurant group due to open in early 2013), the hotel has successfully brought jazz music to the region.

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