McDonald’s is spending big to bring customers back to its restaurants.
The fast-food chain plans to devote $8.5 billion over the next 10 years to improvements to its restaurants, it said on Wednesday. The plan, called McDonald’s Next, includes adding more technology to stores, new training for employees, and increasing the burger chain‘s market share of chicken menu items and beverages.
The goal is “to be the first choice for more customers, more often – while making our restaurants stronger and easier to run,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said.
“We are confident that executing across the key components of NEXT will unlock stronger restaurant economics, generate attractive returns for the Company, our franchisees and shareholders, and increase capacity to keep investing in growth,” Kempczinski said.
The plan comes as McDonald’s faces challenges both within the company and from rivals.
The burger chain reported slowing comparable sales growth for its most recent quarter, pointing to trouble it faced rolling out a new value menu featuring items that cost $3 or less.
The company didn’t offer any details on prices or fixing its value menu. It also didn’t provide an answer to customers who used to head to the Golden Arches for a cheap, quick meal and are now going to other restaurants, from Burger King to Chili’s.
Executives from McDonald’s will discuss the plan at an event on Wednesday morning.
McDonald’s Next will make restaurants more efficient with AI and other operational improvements, the company said. Those types of changes will improve cash flow per restaurant by about $100,000 annually, it said.
McDonald’s plan also includes an effort “to elevate the customer experience through great food and great hospitality,” which the company calls Make It Golden.
In addition to maintaining its share of the burger market, the plan also calls for McDonald’s to increase its share of the beverage and chicken market by 1.5 percentage points each by 2030.
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