McDonald’s to open 1,500 new outlets in Asia over the next five years
It’s targeting China, Hong Kong, and Korea.
McDonald’s is aggressively pursuing growth in Asia, as it announced plans of adding 1,500 more outlets in China, Hong Kong, and Korea over the next five years.
According to the fast food chain’s news release, McDonald’s intends to identify partners that will add value and unlock growth potential in key markets throughout Asia to boost the company’s growth plans.
The company is on the prowl for partners that would bolster its advantages and resources to allow localised decisions on growth initiatives. McDonald’s is also looking to ramp up capital resources to further invest in restaurant expansion and modernisation.
"This will allow McDonald's to accelerate our growth and scale faster across diverse markets placing us closer to our customers and the communities we serve," said Steve Easterbrook, McDonald's President and CEO.
“These actions build on our turnaround efforts and will advance local ownership, enable faster decision-making and achieve restaurant growth," Easterbrook added.
Further, the company also recently announced its plans to target strategic partners in Taiwan and Japan. In 2015, the chain committed to strategic evaluation of ownership structure in markets around the world with the overall goal of slashing the number of company-owned and -operated restaurants.
“The result of this will be to place more restaurants under local ownership, in the hands of local franchisees, with a long-term goal of being 95% franchised. The identification of strategic partners in Asia is consistent with this strategy,” the release asserted.
China, Hong Kong and Korea collectively house more than 2,800 McDonald’s locations. The majority of these are currently company-owned.
