New Zealand-based burger chain, BurgerFuel Worldwide, has opened its first store in Egypt, a huge milestone for the brand that now has stores in four markets in the rapidly developing region of Middle East North Africa (MENA).

The restaurant is located in one of Cairo’s most affluent suburbs, Maadi.

Cairo is the largest metropolitan area in the MENA region, and the 10th largest urban area in the world.

It is BurgerFuel’s first store in North Africa, and joins 20 other BurgerFuel outlets in the MENA region, located in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Iraq.

BurgerFuel opened the restaurant with key local partner Wadi Degla, a large, well known Egyptian company with interests across telecommunications, property development, and food and beverage operations. The company also operates Egypt’s largest private health, sports, and leisure compounds, with each of the clubs hosting eight to nine separate food outlets to service the 30,000 strong members only community.

Ahmed Amin, CEO of Wadi Degla said, “we’re thrilled to have opened the first BurgerFuel restaurant in Egypt. We’re certain that the combination of the resources of BurgerFuel Worldwide and Wadi Degla will result in a significant business in a market with a population of more than 80 million people.”

Chris Mason, founder and CEO of BurgerFuel, said, “we are incredibly pleased to be in partnership with a company of such great scale. Cairo is an exciting, dynamic city with around eight million people and it’s great to open here.”

“We see this store opening as another key strategic milestone for BurgerFuel and a great opportunity to showcase the brand in the rapidly developing region of North Africa which has close connections and proximity to Europe,” Mason said.