McDonald’s pins hopes on £4 deal after sales plummet for first time in four years --[Reported by Umva mag]

McDonald’s is preparing for ‘another challenging year’ and plans to lean on one type of product as customers continue to watch their spending.

The popular American fast food chain had a surprise double-digit drop in global sales for the first time in almost four years over the summer.

And the near future isn’t looking sunnier for the Golden Arches.

‘We’re starting to talk about 2025, and my message to our teams has been: “We need to be preparing for another challenging year,”‘ McDonald’s Chief Executive Officer Chris Kempczinski said on Thursday at a Boston College Chief Executives Club event.

‘We need to be making sure that we’ve got a really strong value proposition in all of our markets.’

In June, a month before reporting its sales dip, McDonald’s began offering a $5 (£4) Meal Deal for a limited time.

Kempczinski said that leaning on chicken is the company’s best bet to be able to offer affordable prices.

‘It’s easier to deliver value on chicken products than it is on beef products,’ he said, according to Bloomberg.

Kempczinski said that beef is twice as much as chicken per pound, and that the latter has become more popular recently.

The CEO revealed his forecast as other executives have said they believe customers hit by inflation will keep feeling the effects for a few quarters.

Just last week, one of the largest french fries producers in North America and a major supplier for McDonald’s announced it closed a factory in Cornell, Washington.

Lamb Weston’s CEO, Tom Werner, explained that demand for frozen potatoes and restaurant traffic ‘continue to be soft’ – and also expected that trend to extend into fiscal year 2025.

Weston noted that the $5 Meal Deal, which includes a McChicken sandwich or a McDouble, four-piece chicken nuggets, a small fry and a small fountain drink, did not help the potato maker because customers were downsizing from a medium fry.

Without a product like chicken to lean on, Lamb Weston resorted to shuttering the plant, and along with it cutting 375 jobs.

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