McDonald’s is back on track after upping its franchising efforts

Given few franchises have had as a massive an impact on pop culture as McDonald’s, it may be difficult to picture the company struggling. However, you only have to rewind to 2015 to find a long series of headlines about the fast-food powerhouse’s dipping performance. Fortunately, the fast-food franchise fought back with a slew of initiatives like introducing new technology to modernise restaurants and experimenting with new delivery systems like its partnership with UberEats, the food-delivery platform launched by Uber. And this approach seems to have borne fruit, if McDonald’s latest quarterly results are anything to go by.

For starters, McDonald’s international sales grew by 6% for the third quarter of 2017 after strong performances by its Canadian, Asian and UK restaurants. Moreover, the company saw its net profits jump to $1.9bn – which represents a 48% increase compared with the same period in 2016 – something in no small part thanks to a drive franchising existing company-owned restaurants in Hong Kong and China that drew in an impressive $850m. As a result, McDonald’s has now completed one of the goals set out to turn the company around a full year ahead of schedule: growing the percentage of its stores that are franchised from 81% to 90% by 2018.

Commenting on the results, Steve Easterbrook, CEO of McDonald’s, said: “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. 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.”

Not only do these results demonstrate the need for every company to modernise but evidently there is a real appetite for franchising around the globe.