Fast Food Goes Halal: Growing Demand Reshapes French Dining Landscape

On the Uber Eats France platform, there are 7,900 restaurants, including Alice Pizza and Panuozzi from restaurateur Tahar Belkadi, which offer halal dishes for delivery, compared to 6,200 two years ago. "I am a pioneer of high-end halal. Demand is growing sharply. I note that the supply is also developing, but I have the advantage of having few competitors in my range of products," explains Belkadi to the newspaper Le Figaro, specifying to have "a very mixed clientele" and "a philosophy of rapprochement of cultures".

Halal fast food in France "is dominated by independents, the number of which is difficult to estimate. On the other hand, we know the turnover of the chains, which are gaining strength," says François Blouin, founder of the Food Service Vision consulting firm. The Quick restaurateur, the leader in burgers with 345 million euros in sales last year, has been offering a halal offer for a few years that is attracting customers.

In general, most halal brands opt for discreet advertising. And the choice proves to be profitable. After opening its first store in Grenoble in 2007, O’Tacos now has 280 establishments in the country. The French chain, controlled since 2018 by the Belgian investment fund Kharis Capital, offers its young clientele (15 to 25 years old) the revisited Mexican taco in a halal version.

The seven largest halal chains in France, namely Quick, O’Tacos, Chicken Street, Gomu Burger, G La Dalle, Point B, Black & White, generated 400 million euros in turnover in 2019, compared to 700 million euros in 2022, according to the latest Food Service Vision Business Chains review. At Gomu Burger, one of the rising chains, with its "bao-ger", "the customers are mostly Muslim. However, everyone can of course eat with us," says Ali Chouiki, co-founder of the chain which has 16 establishments in France and two in Belgium.