McDonald's new strategy includes delivery and artisan chicken sandwiches
Food delivery service. Sirloin burgers. And all-day breakfasts. Those are among some of the new changes and innovations that consumers could see as part of McDonald’s new restructuring strategy announced Monday.
In a candid and forthright video message acknowledging their dismal sales record, McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook announced details of a major turnaround strategy aimed at reviving flagging global sales and fending off its competitors.
“The reality is our recent performance has been poor. The numbers don’t lie,” said Easterbrook in a 23-minute message to shareholders.
“I will not shy away from the urgent need to reset this business.”
Amid ever-encroaching threats from Starbucks, Subway, Chipotle and a handful of mid-sized burger brands like Shake Shack, Five Guys and In-N-Out Burger, the Golden Arches fears sliding into fast food irrelevance over the next few years: in the first quarter of 2015, global sales decreased 2.3 percent.
In the US alone, the company posted its sixth straight quarter of declining sales.
To regain fast food supremacy, Easterbrook said: “We will be faster with innovation, smarter in taking risks, bolder with moves that drive transformation.”
For New Yorkers, that means getting a new delivery service in the city, a program launched Monday.
In an effort to compete against Chipotle and Starbucks, the brand also launched a new ‘artisan grilled chicken sandwich’ in the US, usurping the buzz word ‘artisan’ to pitch their latest offering as a premium product.
In Australia, restaurants serve Angus burgers, steak wraps and rump steak burgers, while the US will also be getting sirloin burgers.
Internationally, the company also singled out China, Italy, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands as markets with the greatest potential for growth and expansion. Collectively, the countries represented 10 percent of the company’s operating income for 2014.
The US -- the largest segment -- accounted for 40 percent, while Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the UK made up another 40 percent.
Meanwhile, last month McDonald’s Japan announced plans to close 131 underperforming stores in the country. The chain has about 3,100 outlets in Japan.
Instead of an initial target of refranchising 1,500 restaurants by 2016, the company also announced plans to accelerate that to 3,500 units by 2018.
That could mean expanding pilot projects currently being tested across the system, including a customizable burger experience that allows customers to build their own sandwich at tablet-enabled kiosks and expanded breakfast hours.
