McDonald's profit gets hammered

Chinese scandal

In its third quarter, McDonald’s net profit dropped 30 % to 1.07 billion dollars (840 million euro), while its turnover also fell back 5 % to 7 billion dollars (5.5 billion euro). The chain had to deal with lower visitor numbers in every large market, partially because a lot of consumers question its food quality.

American like-for-like turnover dropped 3.3 %, something its competitor (Chipotle) took advantage of to increase its market share on the back of a 19.8 % like-for-like turnover growth of its own in its third quarter. European like-for-like turnover dropped 1.4 %, while Chinese like-for-like turnover plummeted 22.7 % because of a scandal.

CEO Don Thompson conceded that McDonald’s faces an image problem and is currently looking for new ways to attract customers. Simplified menus and custom burger options should help draw in more people. McDonald’s currently has several pilot programs which lets customers create their own hamburger combinations.