By Salman Siddiqui/Staff ReporterThe internationally renowned American restaurant chain Applebee opened its new branch at the Villaggio Mall yesterday.Mike Archer, president, Applebee’s international, flew in especially to Doha to inaugurate the sixth branch of the restaurant in Qatar.Sheikh Khaled bin Jassim al-Thani, who is the franchise owner and CEO of the Al Jassim Group, said the business growth so far had been healthy and he expected even better returns in the future.Speaking about the reasons why he chose Villaggio as the destination for the new Applebee branch, he said: “We really want to move with the beat of the city, especially given the development of malls …Villaggio is one of the successful malls in Doha. It is a good location. We had been looking for an opportunity to move here and when it came, we seized it.”Archer said that the franchise in Qatar was among the best in the world. “Our plan is to expand not only in Qatar but throughout the region. Part of the reason of my trip here is to meet the franchise owners and see how we can help and support them,” he said.There are more than 2,000 Applebee restaurants globally out of which 33 are in the GCC region. Gary Moore, regional general manager, Applebee, said: “Qatar is one of the most successful countries in the world. We enjoy very high rates of sales per restaurant here. This is because of the very high standards of operations that we maintain in this country. We see an opportunity to grow from our current six restaurants here to even bigger numbers in the future.”