http://www.augustagazette.

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McDonalds construction sets new regional record

Augusta, Kan.
Many people are anxiously awaiting the opening of the new McDonalds restaurant on Augustas W. 7th St. Bob Lane, owner and operator of Lane Enterprises, is excited about his newest restaurant, The old place was always too small. It took me years to get the lot behind us bought in order to expand, he continued, Its always tough to shut down a business for three months, but we had a great contractor and great weather. We set a new regional record -- on opening day, March 15th it will have been a 56 day build. A special VIP grand opening will be held on March 14th for special guests, which will include city officials, the media and some of the loyal regular McDonalds customers. On the following day, March 15th, the public grand opening will kick off at 5 a.m. The first 100 customers in the lobby and the drive-thru, will receive a punch card for one free meal a week for a year. And each Saturday for the first month, there will be drawings for TVs and other prizes. Customers can enter the drawings any time. The location will be open 24 hours a day, with the lobby open 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. The new 4,500 square foot facility has a lobby twice the size of the former restaurant and the parking area is three times larger than the previous one. The decor is inviting and contemporary, the dining area can comfortably seat 86 customers, and there will be a new Dual Point ordering system where the customer will place an order at one location and move to another to pick it up. The new inside counter method is seen as more efficient, and the duallane drive-thru will make it faster for the outside customers. The location will accommodate laptop users of free WiFi , also available with plug-ins. Lanes wife, Jennifer, who was raised in Augusta and is co-owner and operator, is especially excited about the new place, We love bringing this to Augusta. There are so many wonderful new features and we think everyone will be pleased. The Lanes, who own more than a dozen McDonalds restaurants in Kansas, attribute their success to belief in the customer. Our customers want good food served fast and we want to be their favorite place to eat, Bob Lane said. Now hiring Lane advised that there are now 55 employees, with plans to hire 25 to 30 more. Anyone interested in applying can visit the El Dorado McDonalds, or phone that location, 320-7700, or more information.

http://www.delconewsnetwork.com/articles/2012/02/26/marple_newtown_county_press/news/do c4f43ede932349402723430.txt?viewmode=fullstory
Published: Sunday, February 26, 2012

By Leslie Krowchenko New restaurant, new signs. The Marple Zoning Board voted unanimously to grant variances to McDonalds to update the signs at the eatery. The changes will coordinate with the extensive renovations planned for the restaurant at 2601 West Chester Pike. McDonalds is in the midst of a makeover to convert its locations from fast food to casual dining, said attorney Christen Pionzio, who presented a rendering of the new look. The interior and exterior of the building will be revamped and the color scheme altered from neon hues to muted tones. The exterior building signage, with five individual signs, will be reduced from 65.6 to 55.3 square feet. While the script McDonalds will remain on the West Chester Pike side, it will be removed from the Sproul Road faade. The letter M will be placed on both walls and welcome signs installed above each door. The zoners also permitted 14 free standing signs on the parcel, including welcome at the entrances on both streets, thank you at the right-turn only exit on the pike and five directional signs within the property. The most significant addition will be the second menu board since the restaurant is creating another drive-through lane. The aisles will also be enhanced with signs to help drivers select a lane and determine gateway clearance and canopies at each order location. The freestanding sign on West Chester Pike will remain. The total square footage of the freestanding signs will increase due to the additional drivethrough lane, said Pionzio. The new signs will help with safe ingress and egress and internal circulation.

In Lean Times, McDonald's Only Gets Fatter

Let's face it there are lots of reasons to hate McDonald's: calories, cholesterol and, for me at least, that queasy feeling after munching on McNuggets. Then there's always that kid at the drive-through who forgets the ketchup. Well, add one more reason to spite Ronald: as the global economy spirals downward, McDonald's is minting money. The company addicts us to its food, and now it's making out on our misery? But maybe it's time to change our attitudes about the Golden Arches. What may be bad for the waistline may be good for the wallet. In these tough times, those $3.50 Big Macs never tasted so good. (See the evolution of McDonald's fine-food chain Chipotle.) "In the worst of times for the restaurant industry, it's the best of times for McDonald's," says Burt Flickinger III, managing director of the Strategic Resources Group, a retail-consulting company. McDonald's reported global same-store-sales growth throughout 2008 and in November, global sales rose 7.7% over 2007 (sales jumped 4.5% in the U.S.). In fact, the company's sales have increased for 55 straight months. Profits grew 11%, to $1.2 billion, in the third quarter of 2008 (the company will report its fourth-quarter results on Jan. 26). McDonald's and Walmart were the only two companies in the Dow Jones industrial average whose share prices rose during 2008. Merrill Lynch, which rates McDonald's a "buy," said in a research report that the stock is "in a world of its own." The pricing of McDonald's, highlighted by dollar-menu items like apple pies, side salads and yogurt, plus cheap combo meals burger or sandwich, fries and a drink is a key strength during the recession. In particular, consumers are fleeing casual, family chain restaurants for the convenience and savings of fast food. (Yum! Brands, which owns KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, and Burger King have also seen sales growth, though at smaller levels than McDonald's.) Casual-dining joints are reeling: P.F. Chang's and the Cheesecake Factory, for example, saw their third-quarter 2008 profits fall 43% and 36%, respectively. Bennigan's went bankrupt, Ruby Tuesday will shutter 40 locations by the end of February, and more than a dozen regional chains have filed for bankruptcy. "Any time people can trade down, they're doing that," says Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, which studies consumer behavior. "If you can't afford to eat at Chili's, you'll snap up McDonald's." (Third-quarter sales for Chili's dropped 3%.) (See pictures of the recession of 1958.) The economy is not the only reason people are drawn to McDonald's. The company's management also deserves credit for its success. Back in 2003, America's obesity epidemic was a hot topic, and McDonald's suffered from the backlash. For the first time in its 47-year history, the company saw a quarterly loss. Its stock was down to $12 a share. You couldn't just blame bad p.r. for the company's woes. Stale food and tired stores also kept people away. "McDonald's was actively dissuading customers from coming back," says John Glass, a Morgan Stanley analyst. Since that time, McDonald's and its franchises have remodeled 11,000 stores (there are now 31,000 locations around the globe). At a spruced-up restaurant in the Bronx one weekday evening, Brian Waters, a mailman, sat with his 9-year-old son in a booth. The bright dining area featured abstract paintings of New York City's bridges and the Statue of Liberty. "It used to be dark and drab in here," Waters says. "Now it's nice and clean. I don't mind sitting here anymore." Stores have also extended hours: 34% of the company's 14,000 U.S. restaurants are now open 24/7. (See the top 10 food trends of 2008.) The menu got an upgrade too. Obscene "super-size" choices were phased out (tub of soda, anyone?), and healthier options like apples and salads were added. The company changed its coffee blend; coffee sales have soared 70% over the past two years. Chicken McNuggets now consist solely of white meat, which has less fat and fewer calories than the darker-meat mix of old. When she first started taking her son to McDonald's, Angelica Orzco, a security guard in New York City, wouldn't touch the stuff herself. But these days she's a regular burger eater. "The beef was very greasy," she says. "Now it's much better." Like any other business in this environment, McDonald's faces some potential roadblocks. It's rolling out a specialty coffee menu, called McCafe, which will include vanilla lattes and mochas. "It's not the best time to roll out a premium beverage product," Glass notes. As the recession wears on, fast-food-service growth may flatten out; plus, McDonald's can expect more price competition. For example, Steak 'n Shake, the diner-style burger chain in 21 states throughout the Midwest and South, is promoting four different meal combos for less than $4. "In Los Angeles, every other billboard is a 99-cent food price," says Glass. The battle for bargain-hunting eaters is on. But given its recent winning ways, McDonald's might just add a few more billion served

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1872629,00.html#ixzz1oWmfeAbh

http://www.economist.com/node/1705522
McDonald's

Did somebody say a loss?

THE world has changed. Our customers have changed. We have to change, too. Brave words from Jim Cantalupo, chairman and chief executive of McDonald's for the previous 100 days, who promised investors at a Wall Street meeting on April 7th that the world's biggest fast-food chain no longer wanted to be bigger than everybody else, just better. It is a promise the company will struggle to keep. In January McDonald's announced its first quarterly loss since going public in 1965. Comparable store sales in America, stagnant for the past decade, have been falling for 12 months. McDonald's, once a byword for good service, has been ranked the worst company for customer satisfaction in America for nearly a decadebelow even health insurers and banks. The group's share price has slumped from more than $48 in 1999, to hover around a ten-year low of $12. Mr Cantalupo, a 28-year McDonald's veteran who was yanked from retirement in January to replace Jack Greenberg, the abruptly replaced previous boss, insists he can reverse all this in 12-18 months. At long last he is doing something about the fact that McDonald's has massively misallocated capital for decades. The group is slashing its capital spending this year by a third, to $1.2 billion. Net of closings, it will open 360 restaurants

worldwide in 2003, compared with more than 1,000 last year and 1,700 a year in the 1990s. The firm is under threat of yet another rating downgrade. Yet, as well as repaying some debt, some of the money saved will be returned to shareholders, though the firm frustrated investors by refusing to say how much.

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McDonald's

Even more damning, Mr Cantalupo and Charlie Bell, his number two and heir-apparent, spent much of their presentation promising improvements in the basics of restaurant managementcleanliness, service and staff productivityjust to keep customers coming back. Under Mr Greenberg, McDonald's did not even have a system for monitoring standards, so as to avoid trouble with franchisees. A grading system and mystery shopper policy are now in place, and the group promises to get tougher on its owneroperators. The menu too has been a mess. It will be slimmed, so to speak. There will be fewer confusing meal choices and more healthier, premium products such as salads, yoghurts and sliced fruit. Although it has long denied that its food is linked to obesity, McDonald's, a firm that is all about image, has finally twigged that its brand is under threat from its unhealthy reputation. In a confusing attempt to be all things to all people (something Mr Cantalupo said he wants to avoid) the group plans to offer champagne taste on a beer budget, with new premium-priced foods, even as it declares value part of the brand heritage. Advertising and store ambience are getting an overhaul too; the group's classier French stores may be a model. Less classy is Mr Bell's idea to aim Ronald McDonald, the group mascot (and apparently the second most-recognised icon in America after Santa Claus) at young adults, a key demographic after children. All this leaves many investors wondering whether McDonald's really gets it, as Mr Cantalupo kept insisting in his presentation. With the rise of fast casual restaurants such as gourmet sandwich shops, the McDonald's offering looks increasingly outdated. The group's most recent genuine menu hit was the introduction of Chicken McNuggets in 1983. Franchisees, used to 10-15% annual growth and fat margins, have seen their profits come under pressure and have been alienated by poorly executed initiatives from headquarters, such as the expensive new Made for You kitchens that they had to buy. What difference at McDonald's? Yet top management in Oak Brooks, Illinois, including Mats Lederhausen, the strategy director, and Michael Roberts, head of American operations, as well as Messrs Bell and Cantalupo, are all long-time insiders, shaped by the previous, out-of-date strategy. Mr Cantalupo, who masterminded the group's international expansion in the 1980s and 1990s lacks the vision or stomach to make the necessary changes, commented one analyst. The top team's wooden presentation on April 7th, liberally doused with marketing clichs and soundbites about the importance of people, product, place, price, promotion and improving focus, only reinforced that impression. Above all, it is clear that Mr

Cantalupo and his team still see McDonald's as a growth company, albeit one with more modest annual targets of a 3-5% increase in sales and a 6-7% rise in operating profits from 2005. The implication is that, after implementing the revitalisation plan, capital spending will be cranked up again and the aggressive restaurant-opening programme will resume. They appear unwilling to acknowledge that McDonald's, rather like Coca-Cola or Disney, is these days a mature company in a much more competitive market that should be run for cash. That is certainly what many shareholders want. Bryan Knepper, of Columbia Management Group (FleetBoston's renamed asset-management arm), says he wants recompense for the underperforming share price: I want them to give cash back to shareholders. Another investor suggests that, with a yield of only 1.6%, McDonald's should double its 24-cent dividend, which costs it a mere $300m a year. A third muses that my dream is that they pay a huge dividend and expand only with the incremental operating profit of existing stores. They need to earn the right to grow again. Ironically, Ray Kroc, who founded and then expanded McDonald's as much by buying and renting property as by selling hamburgers, has left the group a gold mine to exploit. Peter Oakes, an analyst at Merrill Lynch, notes that the group owns 75% of the buildings and 40% of the land at its 30,000 locations. He calculates that the land alone, which has a book value of $4 billion, would fetch $12 billion (before tax) today. That value could be exploited through a sale-and-leaseback programme. McDonald's also admits to thinking about selling a controlling stake in its portfolio of partner brands, which includes such chains as Boston Market chicken, Chipotle burritos and Pret a Manger sandwiches. This portfolio is worth around $1 billion. The group could have been more draconian in cutting capital spending, as it needs only $600m-700m a year for maintenance. It could also, albeit more riskily, have slashed its marketing budget. Add it all up and McDonald's could easily hand several billion dollars back to its investors. Given the looming danger of obesity litigation and a backlash against marketing unhealthy food to children, returning supersized lumps of money to shareholders now could come to look farsighted. Alas, it may take more change at the top to milk this particular cash cow.

http://www.consumerpsychologist.com/marketing_introduction.html

http://trex.id.iit.edu/~davidm/assets/McGaw-ID-McD-study.pdf

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