McDonald's is doing better than before corona

McDonald’s exceeds expectations with a strong first quarter. Especially in the American market, recovery has begun, with figures that even surpass those before the coronavirus pandemic.

Double-digit growth for 2021

Consumers seek refuge in hamburgers in times of pandemic, as McDonald’s quarterly figures show. The fast-food chain saw sales increase by 9% to 5.12 billion dollars (4.23 billion euros), even more than the 5.03 billion dollars that analysts had expected. On a comparable basis, sales growth of 7.5% even matched that of 2019, long before the coronavirus.

Thanks to the United States, where sales rose 13.6%. Abroad, results were mixed: the burger chain still suffered from lockdowns in countries such as France and Germany, while Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia posted positive growth. In what McDonald’s calls its developing markets, sales rose by 6.4%, driven mainly by growth in China and Japan. A year ago, sales there shrank by 5.3% due to corona.

Net profit, at 1.54 billion (1.27 billion euro), was also higher than the 1.11 billion (0.92 billion euro) of a year earlier and more than analysts had dared to hope for. McDonald’s is therefore immediately raising its outlook for the whole year. Instead of sales growth of around 10%, the company predicts sales growth will now be closer to 15%. The hamburger chain wants to focus on “culturally relevant marketing”, digitisation, delivery and “drive-thru”. In the first quarter, the fast-food giant in the US already recorded 1.5 billion dollar in online sales.