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Along with the Big Breakfast and Big Macs, McDonald’s Corp. has 50,000 new jobs on its national menu today.
Fifteen-hundred of those jobs are being offered in the Chicago area. Jobs to be offered in the U.S. range from restaurant crew to salaried management. Get the full story »
Attorneys this week dropped a lawsuit that alleged that Taco Bell’s beef was mostly not beef, both sides of the once-contentious legal battle said.
Alabama-based law firm Beasley Allen brought the class-action lawsuit in January and claimed that lab tests had shown that the eatery’s beef was actually only 35 percent beef. The plaintiffs said they wanted the fast food restaurant to stop referring to its products as beef. Get the full story »
A busy morning at the Dunkin' Donuts franchise in the village of Posen. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Tribune)
Dunkin’ Brands Inc. has hired J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Barclays PLC to lead an initial public offering of its Dunkin’ Donuts unit this summer, CNBC’s Kate Kelly reported Thursday, without citing sources.
The IPO would seek to raise between $500 million and $700 million, she said. Get the full story »
Coffee cups at the McDonald's restaurant at Fullerton & Central in Chicago. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune)
Fickle coffee drinkers are most loyal to a purveyor better known for burgers, a new study found. Coffee customers of McDonald’s Corp., said they were more loyal to the home of the Big Mac than those who frequent Starbucks Corp. and Dunkin’ Donuts in a study by market research firm CustomersDNA LLC.
The as-yet unpublished study involved 15,000 fast-food customers who were asked about their coffee and breakfast-buying habits, only 29 percent of McDonald’s customers said they go to a Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee or breakfast in a given month. Get the full story »
U.S. fast-food chain McDonald’s Corp. said Wednesday it had scrapped a television commercial in the devoutly Catholic Philippines after facing a barrage of criticism from church leaders. Get the full story »
Wendy's natural-cut fries debuted in November. (Wendy's/Arby's)
Wendy’s/Arby’s Group Inc. is standing up to its biggest burger rival, McDonald’s Corp., by putting its marketing dollars toward gaining more french fry market share. By changing its recipe to differ more from McDonald’s french fries, Wendy’s is choosing to compete by being unique, rather than solely by trying to be better.
“French fries are a significant part of our menu,” said Ken Calwell, Wendy’s chief marketing officer. “And it’s so hard to have something unique and different, that still tastes good, in the fast-food industry. So, we see the new fries as a huge opportunity for us.” Get the full story »
Ronald McDonald slaps first graders' hands as they head to lunch at Dawes Elementary School in Evanston in 2008. (Heather Stone/Chicago Tribune)
McDonald’s Corp. is putting its long-time character Ronald McDonald back on television and bolstering his web presence, resetting its sights on younger consumers after its recent push to target adults with specialty coffee and smoothies.
The new commercials starting Wednesday, starring McDonald’s mascot of 48 years, encourage kids to go to HappyMeal.com, with parents’ permission, to play games and create photos with Ronald. Get the full story »
A Sbarro Inc. employee serves patrons at a restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. (Reuters_
Pizza chain Sbarro Inc. said Monday it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under a plan that would remove more than half of the company’s total debt. Get the full story »
To nab the attention of top-flight job candidates, McDonald’s is tackling the image of a “McJob” with a weeks-long advertising and public-relations campaign leading up to April 19, when McDonald’s Corp. plans to hire 50,000 store-level employees.
Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc, a large South American franchisee of U.S. fastfood chain McDonald’s Corp, is planning to raise about $875 million in a stock offering and list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Get the full story »
Workers at a Subway in Rosemont, Ill., April 8, 2010. (Lane Christiansen/Chicago Tribune)
It’s official: the Subway sandwich chain has surpassed Oak Brook-based McDonald’s Corp. as the world’s largest restaurant chain, in terms of units.
At the end of last year, Subway had 33,749 restaurants worldwide, according to a Subway spokesman, compared to McDonald’s 32,737. The burger giant disclosed its year-end store count in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late last month. Get the full story »
McDonald’s Corp.’s Indian franchisee plans to set up 30 new restaurants in the southern and western parts of the country this year, as part of the restaurant chain’s expansion plans in Asia’s third-largest economy.
Speaking to Reuters in an interview, Hardcastle Restaurants Private Ltd Vice Chairman Amit Jatia said the franchisee would invest $111 million in India over the next three to four years. Get the full story »
The largest McDonald’s franchisee globally is planning a U.S. listing that could raise as much as $1 billion, the Financial Times said on Wednesday.
Arcos Dorados might file for an initial public offering within days and could start trading in New York in April, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources. Get the full story »
Yum Brands Inc. said it’s shopping for a buyer for its Long John Silver’s and A&W All-American Food Restaurants to focus on international expansion.
The company, which also operates Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, said the chains don’t fit in with its long-term growth strategy, and it doesn’t expect the sale to have a material effect on its ongoing earnings or cash flow. Get the full story »
