Skip to footer

McDonald's sales slide is a global affair

McDonald's Corp's worldwide same-restaurant sales fell a steeper-than-expected 1.8 percent in January, as the company struggles to shake off the after-effects of food scandals in Asia. January marked the eighth straight month of worldwide same-restaurant sales declines at McDonald's,

|
Toru Hanai/Reuters/File
The logo of McDonald's is seen at its restaurant facade in Tokyo.McDonald's Corp's worldwide same-restaurant sales fell a steeper-than-expected 1.8 percent in January, the fast food giant announced Monday, Feb. 10, 2014.
  • By Yashaswini Swamynathan and Lisa Baertlein Reuters

 McDonald's Corp's worldwide same-restaurant sales fell a steeper-than-expected 1.8 percent in January, as the company struggles to shake off the after-effects of food scandals in China and Japan.

January marked the eighth straight month of worldwide same-restaurant sales declines at McDonald's, which is also battling changing consumer tastes, tough competition in the United States and economic and political turmoil inEurope, its top sales market.

Shares of the world's largest fast-food chain fell more than 1 percent to $92.95 in premarket trading.

Comparable restaurant sales in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa fell 12.6 percent in January, while analysts on average expected a fall of 8.4 percent, according to research firm Consensus Metrix.

Analysts expected a 1.2 percent decline in worldwide same-restaurant sales.

Sales at U.S. restaurants open at least 13 months, a closely watched gauge of performance, rose 0.4 percent, helped by higher demand of its breakfast items. That was marginally better than analysts estimates of a rise of 0.3 percent.

In December, those sales rose for the first time since October 2013. Sales have been hit by competition from smaller and more nimble direct rivals ranging from Burger King to Chick-fil-A.

One bright spot was Europe where same-restaurant sales rose 0.5 percent due to higher demand in the U.K. andGermany. Analysts had expected a fall of 0.5 percent.

McDonald's, trying to find the right recipe for diners' growing appetite for healthier and fresher food, has been trimming complicated menus, giving more control back to restaurant operators and testing customized burgers and sandwiches to compete with popular restaurants like Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc and Subway.

McDonald's is yet to recover from a food scandal in China, reported last year, where a local TV report showed workers at one of the company's supplier using expired meat.

Customers were further spooked last month after objects, including a tooth and plastic, were found in its food inJapan.

After one of its toughest years in decades, the company, which has more than 36,000 restaurants around the globe, is replacing its chief executive. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to McDonald's sales slide is a global affair
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2015/0209/McDonald-s-sales-slide-is-a-global-affair
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe