All-day breakfast continues to drive sales for McDonald’s in the United States.

OAK BROOK, Ill. – All-day breakfast remains a boon for McDonald’s Corp. in the United States, but the QSR chain is looking beyond breakfast for additional growth opportunities in the US market.

“Whilst we’re no longer in the launch phase, this platform remains a significant contributor to top-line results, and we’re already looking at ways to extend it in the future in response to customers’ feedback,” Steve Easterbrook, president and CEO of McDonald’s, said during an April 22 earnings call with financial analysts.

 
McDonald's most recent value platform offers two items for $5.
“The McPick 2 platform provides customers with more choices at compelling price points and it gives us added flexibility at both national and local levels,” Easterbrook said. “We tested two versions of the platform in the first quarter: McPick 2 for $2 in January, and McPick 2 for 2 for $5 in March. The offerings were designed to target different customers, and both resonated well.”

 

After experimenting with various value platforms over the past two years, the company is confident in its latest proposition, said Kevin Ozan, CFO.

“We believe through the McPick 2 platform as a whole, we have the flexibility at both national and local levels such that we can offer compelling value at different points, different times a year, and maybe slightly different offers in different parts of the country, depending on the consumer set,” Ozan said. “But we believe that could be a platform that continues to offer growth opportunity and drive customers in.”

 
McDonald's is focusing on improving the accuracy and speed of its drive-thrus.
Beyond all-day breakfast and McPick 2, McDonald’s is pursuing additional opportunities to fuel momentum in the US market.

 

“This includes further enhancements of our core menu items to improve quality perceptions of our food, sustaining our heightened focus on operations, especially in our drive-thrus, to improve accuracy and speed of service; and additional opportunity to simplify our menu and the overall restaurant experience for our customers and crew,” Easterbrook said. “Customers in the US are noticing a difference. We experienced a 6 percent improvement in our overall customer satisfaction scores compared to the first quarter of last year, and we’re gaining share relative to that QSR sandwich segment with a positive comparable sales gap of 140 basis points for the quarter.”