Eimear O'Mullane, Bord Bia Milan

Mc Donald’s, the world’s largest hamburger chain, intends to increase the number of new stores in Europe next year by 250, reflecting the increased investment focus on the region by the company. Mc Donald’s stores in the USA reported a fall in sales in October for the first time in over 19 months while at the same time its European stores saw its sales rise by over 6%. Mc Donald’s expect this buoyant sales growth, which is been driven by an increase in the frequency of store visits rather than from a big rise in spend per visit, to continue.

Mc Donald’s has about 33,000 restaurants worldwide of which 13,000 are in the US and 6,600 are in Europe. Their European restaurants earn about 40% of the groups operating income while the US contributes about a half.

The group competes with the number two burger chain, Burger King, in Britain, Germany and Spain and with pizza and chicken chains across the continent. Mc Donald’s have successfully sought to counter the economic downturn by pricing core items at very competitive prices and by introducing new products such as snacks, wraps, and vegetarian options.

The group earns about 70% of its European income from 4 countries-France, Germany, Britain, and Russia. Russia is the group’s fastest growing market and there are plans for 40-50 new stores in 2010. France & Germany will both get about 30 new stores while Italy & Spain will get 40 and 25 respectively.

The McDonalds concept was initially slow to take off in Italy due to the negative perception by many Italians of American fast food. Today however Mc Donald’s outlets are well established in most major cities and towns with the world’s largest Mc Donald’s situated in the heart of the fashionable piazza di Spagna  in Rome.