McDonald’s says it will vastly reorganise its international operations and sell off more corporate sites to franchisees as it strives to reverse a trend of sagging sales. The US fast food burger giant said on Monday its overseas markets will be organised by their maturity within the McDonald’s system, rather than by region. Its current structure splits markets outside its home US market into Europe and Asia/Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. McDonald’s “international lead&
#8221; segment will be more mature markets such as Australia, Britain, Canada, France, and Germany, “which operate with similar economic and competitive dynamics”.
The “high growth” segment will be those with higher expansion potential, including China, Italy, Switzerland, Russia, and South Korea.
Remaining regions will go into the “foundational” markets unit.
“Our new organisation creates a structure under which leadership of McDonald’s new segments will be able to more effectively address the common needs of their markets and customers,” said new CEO Steve Easterbrook.
With 36,000 outlets in more than 100 countries, the home of the Big Mac has been under pressure from falling customer traffic and revenues for two years, due to a range of challenges including changing consumer tastes and more agile rivals.
Faced with slower sales, McDonald’s in January picked Easterbrook to replace Donald Thompson as CEO.
The company also said it would achieve US$300 million (A$383.00 million) in annual cost savings by the end of 2017. It pledged to return US$8-9 billion to shareholders in 2015.
Dow member McDonald’s shares slipped 0.2 per cent to US$97.59 in opening trade.
AFP
