Burger King in Serbia: Danubian Hires for Belgrade

Job ads for a single restaurant in Belgrade went up on employment websites on August 11, 2026, and they mark the first measurable step in six months of announcements: Burger King in Serbia is moving from talks with the government to actually filling positions. The chain is hiring a marketing specialist, shift managers and restaurant team members.

For now, one restaurant is hiring. The city is Belgrade. The exact location has not been disclosed, and neither has an opening date.

Until now, the only public signal had been a meeting in February 2026, when Economy Minister Adrijana Mesarovic said she had spoken with representatives of the chain about opening a number of restaurants across Serbia. No other details came out of that meeting: not the number of locations, not the investment amount, not a timeline.

Who is Danubian d.o.o.

Employer information in the job ads shows that the chain’s representative in Serbia is a company called Danubian d.o.o. Public records on the firm are sparse, but they are enough to trace the ownership chain.

• The director is Veselin Janicijevic, who for years ran McDonald’s operations in Serbia, meaning the biggest global rival of the chain he now works for.
• The sole owner of Danubian’s shares is the Austrian company Nomberg Management GMBH, whose registered business is entering into and managing franchise agreements.
• The owner of that Austrian firm is Dzevat Jusufi, a 64-year-old businessman from Kosovo.

Jusufi also owns Balkan Foods, a Pristina based company that holds the Burger King franchise in Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under this structure, the Serbian market is a continuation of a regional portfolio that already covers four markets in the region, not a separate entry by the chain’s global headquarters.

Putting a man who ran McDonald’s in charge of the local representative of a rival brand is not an unusual move in the fast food industry. A franchise operator is buying knowledge of the local network of locations, suppliers and leases, and that knowledge is tied to the person, not to the brand.

Why the Zelengorska address stands out

Danubian is headquartered on Zelengorska Street in Novi Beograd. Until recently, the same address housed the representative office of AmRest, the multinational that runs KFC and Starbucks in Serbia.

A few years ago there was speculation that AmRest itself might bring Burger King to Serbia. The shared address, however, is the only thing connecting the two companies: there is no other formal link between Danubian and AmRest. In practice, this means the local representative is entering the market without the backing of the restaurant network and logistics that AmRest has already built for its two brands.

What still hasn’t been announced

The job ads leave out exactly what would determine the scale of the venture: the location of the first restaurant, an opening date, the planned number of locations and the size of the capital investment. None of that has been disclosed either in February or now.

The mix of advertised positions still says something. Hiring a country level marketing specialist, rather than only restaurant staff, typically precedes an opening meant to carry a marketing campaign, and it usually does not happen for a single, isolated location.

The chain was founded in 1954 in Miami and today operates more than 19,700 restaurants in more than 120 countries. Until now, it has never had one in Serbia.

The next confirmation of the chain’s plans will be either an official announcement of a location, or the moment the business register shows a commercial lease filed under Danubian’s name. Until then, the only document proving the chain’s arrival on the Serbian market is a job ad.