McDonald's to close 200 U.S. locations
McDonald’s announced Tuesday it is permanently closing 200 of 14,000 locations across the United States as the fast food giant reported its lowest quarterly profits in 13 years, according to the Financial Times.
The Chicago-based company said “low-volume restaurants” in Walmart stores will make up more than half of the closures, CFO Kevin Ozan said.
Last week, McDonald’s said it will delay dining room reopenings for at least another month and will require face masks for anyone entering its restaurants.
McDonald's is having a rough year, as shown in the company's quarterly earnings report — but there are signs of recent improvement https://t.co/oNKRLWxaKb pic.twitter.com/nLOVUHRnNK
— CNN (@CNN) July 29, 2020
“Within a matter of weeks, the McDonald’s system made operational modifications across 30,000 restaurants, while closing and then reopening another 9,000 restaurants,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said during an earnings call. “We introduced new safety procedures in all our restaurants, modified our menus and developed new contactless ways to serve our customers.”
McDonald’s said it expects to spend $200 million — on top of previously planned marketing — in the second half of the year on ads promoting core menu items and delivery and drive-thru.
Of the chain’s 39,000 restaurants worldwide, 96% are open, compared with 75% at the start of the second quarter. Comparable-store sales that were down 39% in April were down only 12% by June.
Bret Gibson is a TribLive digital producer. A South Hills resident, he started working for the Trib in 1998. He can be reached at bgibson@triblive.com.
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