McDonald's Is Out of Room to Build New Restaurants But Has a New Plan for Growth
As of the beginning of 2017, there are 14,155 McDonald’s locations in the United States, and 36,899 in the world.
In fact, most countries have all the McDonald’s locations they can support, which means that the fast food giant had to find other ways to grow.
In order to increase same-store sales, McDonald’s will now be offering delivery in more locations, according to Motley Fool Stock Advisor.
“We are bringing a new level of convenience to more of our customers as we continue to transform the McDonald’s experience,” McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook said in a statement in March 2017, according to Fox News.
McDonald’s is following Domino’s model of making its food incredibly easy to order and have delivered for convenience.
The fast-food chain has partnered with Uber in the U.S. to help with delivery, so it didn’t have to spend money on creating its own delivery network. It instead invested in an app designed to make ordering, delivering and picking up food easier, Motley Fool Stock Advisor reported.
“Over the course of the past nine months, we’ve introduced delivery in over 5,000 restaurants across 20 countries,” McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook said in an earnings call. “Along with the 3,500 restaurants in existing delivery markets across Asia and the Middle East, we now offer delivery in over 20 percent of McDonald’s restaurants around the world.”
Easterbrook plans to offer delivery in 5,000 U.S. restaurants by 2018.
Twitter users reacted to the new delivery options.
“We are serving more customers, more often by offering great tasting food at a good value with the quick service and friendly hospitality they expect from McDonald’s,” Easterbrook said while announcing 2017 third-quarter results. “Our positive comparable sales and guest counts across all of our operating segments during the third quarter demonstrate broad-based momentum throughout our business that builds upon our strong first half of 2017.”
Global sales in the third quarter of 2017 increased by six percent. In the U.S. the third quarter comparable sales increased by 4.1 percent, according to the October report.
“Our Velocity Growth Plan is the right strategy for McDonald’s to achieve long-term, profitable growth and we are on track to succeed with our commitment and focus on execution. We’ve made progress in many areas of our business already, including optimizing our restaurant ownership mix and running better restaurants,” Easterwood concluded. “At the same time, we also are making strides with initiatives such as delivery, mobile order and pay, as well as the Experience of the Future transformation of our restaurants that will make the experience more convenient, personalized and enjoyable for our customers.”
McDonald’s fourth-quarter earnings from 2017 will be announced later this month on Jan. 30.
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