Chris Kempczinski, president and CEO of McDonald’s international, has said in an interview with CNBC that sales plunged by 22% in March compared with last year, and the company is expecting worse to come. He also mentions in the conversation that plantbased products will certainly roll out into the USA in the coming future.
In the first quarter of 2020 McDonald’s saw closures of over 50% of its international operated markets segment. Moreover, four countries: The UK, Spain, Italy and France — have closed down restaurants entirely. During April, the sales in these countries were down by 70%.
“Looking at comparable sales, we expect the second quarter as a whole to be significantly worse than what we experienced for the full month of March,” said Kempczinski.
Looking to the future, and one might guess, as a way to recompense, he mentions that, “Certainly over time McDonald’s will have plant-based products on the menu” in the USA. McDonalds trialled its PLT burger in Canada which has a Beyond Meat Patty. Potentially this could be the next product to come to the US and would certainly offer some damage limitation. It would also account for some of the $150 million in credit that Beyond recently obtained in order to expand operations.
