McDonald’s to double China restaurants by 2013

By Reuters
Posted Dec. 15, 2010 at 6:06 a.m.

McDonald’s Corp. plans to double the number of its restaurants in China to 2,000 by 2013, a senior executive said on Wednesday as it speeds up expansion in the fastest growing major economy.

The top global fast food chain, which opened its first outlet in the southern boom town of Shenzhen 20 years ago, is facing fierce competition with Yum Brands Inc., the parent of Pizza Hut and KFC, which has roughly 3,700 outlets in China.

But it has been intensifying its input, opening 165 new restaurants in the country this year, with a plan to add up to 200 outlets in 2011.

“China has been the fastest-growing market for McDonald’s worldwide with regard to new restaurant opening,” its China chief executive, Kenneth Chan, told reporters in Beijing.

“It took us almost 19 years to reach 1,000 restaurants. We will get our next 1,000 restaurants within three years.

To help attract more customers, the U.S. fast food giant has also began to update the image of its outlets, featuring bright, warm colours along with soft, comfortable seating and simple but fashionable interiors.

Four restaurants in downtown Beijing have gotten a face-lift already, and 80 percent of its outlets across China will be upgraded by 2013, Chan said.

In addition, half of all new McDonald’s restaurants to be opened in the next three years in China will feature Drive-Thrus to appeal to China’s increasingly mobile population, he added.

McDonald’s had in mid-November raised menu prices by 0.5 to 1 yuan, or 8 to 15 cents, in mainland China to offset higher food costs.

Chan declined to say whether there would be further price hikes given China’s rising annual consumer inflation, which hit a 28-month high of 5.1 percent in November.

But he said McDonald’s has been offering value meals, such as a 6-yuan breakfast and a 15-yuan lunch, and will continue to do so in the future.

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3 comments:

  1. neal Dec. 15, 2010 at 8:22 a.m.

    Great. Now an American company can poison the Chinese populace just as Chinese companies have been poisoning Americans.

  2. Harvey Wallbanger Dec. 15, 2010 at 8:31 a.m.

    Is this the job creation that the extension of tax cuts is supposed to provide? I thought we were talking job creation in the United States, not China. I guess I was wrong.

  3. Lior Paritzky Dec. 15, 2010 at 9:42 pm

    Obviously Mcdonalds is a private company and is looking for profit. However, China will face severe consequences as a result of this expansion: diabetes and health care expenses will rise significantly, and bare in mind that China does not have the same quality of health care as the United States does.
    It will be interesting to see if there would be an attempt by the government to stop this expansion by Mcdonalds.

    I have recently written some interesting posts about China in my blog: http://www.laowaiblog.com

    I invite everyone to read and to comment

    Thank you!