The Golden Arches showed its continuing global strength last week with the release of almost perfect Q3 earnings. Global same-store sales were up 9.5%, with US SSS up 6.1%. The average ticket was largely responsible for driving much of the gain, but customer traffic was positive as well. In the U.S., the power of targeted…
Read More »Strange bedfellows indeed! This week, McDonalds announced a partnership with Krispy Kreme for a limited time where the burger giant will be serving Krispy Kreme donuts in a select number of stores. The trial partnership is centered on Louisville, Kentucky, where beginning Tuesday of next week, nine stores will offer three varieties of Krispy Kreme…
Read More »Tim Horton’s has been in the news over the past several weeks for a number of reasons. First, the Canadian coffee chain announced a few weeks ago that it was introducing flatbread pizzas as a new limited time offer at about 20 locations in the Toronto market. They followed that up by announcing the brand’s…
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The crowd began gathering before 10:00 a.m., many queuing up in the line that would reward the first 100 people with free coffee for a year. There was music from one of Boston’s top pop radio stations and voices guests recognized as popular DJs. Mascots from Boston’s professional sports teams romped through the crowd, posing…
Read More »McDonald’s had a complicated worldwide situation to report last week on its earnings call with the sale of its Russian business and a large tax settlement paid in France. Notwithstanding, it beat earnings but missed on revenue by modest amounts. In the all-visible US market, same-store sales were up 3.7 percent – just short of…
Read More »Last week, the National Operators Association (NOA), the independent franchisee association for those in the McDonald’s system, polled its members in the wake of Corporate announced changes to franchisee contract renewals beginning next year. That polling echoed a similar vote by the National Black McDonalds Operators Association the prior week with 87% of NOA members…
Read More »Tensions have been building of late between McDonald’s and many of its franchisees over proposed new standards for US contract renewals. Word of the new franchise standards began circulating back in May but the company has been plowing ahead with the revisions. Saying that the right to operate one of its restaurants is “earned, not…
Read More »Last week, McDonalds reported Q1 earnings with overall stable conditions except for the increased costs for food and labor. U.S. same-store sales rose 3.5%, sequentially lower than the last several quarters, in part due to using 2021 as the base. The company reported traffic was minus 1% and while US guests were generally spending and…
Read More »McDonalds reported Q4 and full year 2021 earnings yesterday. While absolute sales and profit levels were higher in 2021 versus 2020, both sales and earnings missed analyst’s projections in Q4. Both food and labor costs have become a very difficult problem and McD is forecasting food and paper costs in the “high single digit to…
Read More »Aside from its growing union issues, Starbucks this week reversed course on its own previously announced employee vaccine-or-test mandate after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Biden administration vaccine-or-test mandate. Starbucks told employees this week that the company will no longer require its US workers to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing as it had…
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