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Posts Tagged ‘McDonald’s’

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McDonald’s Latest Addition

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

The newest addition to the McDonalds range is a new healthy soft drink called Fruitizz. It will be available in all stores from next week (16th May).

This product is finally released after three years of product development research. They wanted to create a healthy new drink that still excites children but has a nutritional benefit. It consists of 60 per cent fruit juice from grapes, apples and raspberries combined with sparkling water. There are no added sugars, colours or flavours.

The chief executive and president at McDonalds UK said, “We are thrilled to be unveiling Fruitizz, a refreshing fizzy fruit juice drink that will help parents give children one of their five a day.

“For the past three years, we have been working hard behind the scenes to create a fizzy drink that is unlike anything else currently available in high street restaurants. We tried and tested 80 formulations in order to create the right product that delivers nutritional benefit as well as a new, exciting taste.”

The product went on trial in 62 McDonalds branches in Wales last year and 75 per cent of people who bought Fruitizz with a happy meal said they would choose it again.Fast food is traditionally unhealthy but McDonalds looks set to break the mould as they have embarked on a salt and sugar reduction programme. Last year the average happy meal contained 50 per cent less salt, 21 per cent less saturated fat and 31 per cent less sugar compared to the same product that was sold in 2000. Other healthy options that have been introduced to the happy meal menu are, carrot sticks, fruit bags, mineral water and semi skimmed milk.

By having this new healthy addition to the happy meal menu hopefully this will encourage good press as opposed to the bad press that has been featured recently that all fast food is bad for you. As a result we are sure that all people in the food industry will support the new release including, commercial restaurant insurance companies, manufacturers, critics, suppliers, staff and the general public.

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Burger King Menu Reinvention Similar to McDonalds

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

In recent years, Burger King has struggled to stay near the top of the fast-food chain.  The need for healthy eating has become increasingly important for people and oily burgers and fries are becoming less appealing. Competitors like Subway have taken advantage of this change in consumer attitude. Their wide range of salad-laden sandwiches has boosted their popularity, making them the second largest food chain in the country.  Like any other chain of restaurants, large or small, Subway will need to take out restaurant insurance for each new store they open.

Over the past year, Burger King Executives have been working tirelessly to evaluate all the items on their menu and work out what needs to be done in order to boost their dwindling sales.  While other restaurants like McDonalds, Subway and KFC have taken steps to provide healthier option meals, Burger King failed to do so.  That changed however when it was bought by new owners and 15 key executives spent 3 months assessing all aspects of the menu, from the vanilla content in ice cream to their method of frying.

After much debate they settled on a new menu which is currently available in the US, although some similar options can be purchased in the UK. The latest additions include chicken strips, chicken wraps, speciality salads and smoothies.  These new items are healthier than their usual offerings, but they still contain a few more calories than McDonalds.

In addition to similar calorie content, the actual food is very similar to what McDonalds have been offering for sometime. For example, Burger King has a “Ranch Crispy Chicken Snack Wrap” and a “Honey Mustard Crispy Chicken Snack Wrap”. These wraps are 370 and 390 calories respectively. Competing from McDonalds is their 350 calorie Ranch Snack Wrap with Crispy Chicken and their 330 calorie Honey Mustard Snack Wrap with Crispy Chicken. Burger King Executives can not deny that their food is alarmingly similar but they argue they are simply giving the consumers what they demand. President of Burger King’s North America operations, Steve Wiborg said “Consumers wanted more choices. Not just healthy choices, but choices they could get at the competition”.

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Church Leaders Angry about McDonald’s being Open on Christmas Day

Monday, December 12th, 2011

Most of us will spend Christmas Day enjoying a roast dinner with our family and friends. However, some of us will be working or be away from home.

A McDonald’s branch to be open on Christmas Day, has been criticised by church leaders.

Parish Rvd Wayne Stillwell said that the decision to open that McDonalds showed “the continuing decline of Christendom in the country” and his reaction was “one of great sadness”.

He added, “I’m sad that we’ve got to this point in our society where something that means as much as Christmas seems to mean so little.

“It shows the continuing decline of Christendom in our country.”

Rev Stillwell, of St Mary’s Church, Chaddesden, explained: “Some people, who provide essential services, have to work on Christmas Day – but I don’t feel that those employed by a fast-food restaurant should be in the same situation.”

The manager who has volunteered to manage the McDonalds, Shahban Rehmat, said no staff who did not want to work that day were being forced to and that he was expecting a steady trade throughout the day.

Rehmat said, “It’s the first time the restaurant will open on December 25 and it’s for the convenience of our customers.

“There are people who work on Christmas Day and they would normally struggle to find somewhere to eat.

“I think the move will prove popular with non-Christians, and several customers have asked us whether we will be open.

“It’s difficult to say how many we are expecting but I think there will be a steady trade.”

Dr John Davies, the Dean of Derby, said he had “no argument” with the move.

He said, “Mary, Joseph and the babe were lucky to find an innkeeper who helped them find a place to stay. He provided hospitality for them.

“Families and friends should come together at Christmas, and if they want to do that in McDonald’s then who is the Church to object?’

A McDonalds spokesperson said many of the stores are franchises, and added, “It is up to the individual store and their staff members which individuals work on Christmas Day.

“It is not policy for staff members of a particular religion to work on any specific day – although staff who do not celebrate Christmas may make the decision to work on December 25 themselves.

“We expect there to be about 60 stores in the UK that remain open this year, all in areas where there is a high demand for us to stay open, and where there are a large number of people who perhaps do not celebrate Christmas.

“There have always been a small number of our stores which choose to open on December 25.”

The fast food restaurants which are open on Christmas Day will all have supplies, commercial restaurant insurance, and staff running the outlets, which will give customers choice about whether they want to eat there. It certainly doesn’t bother us that they are open. Who knows… we might get a bit peckish after our Christmas dinner!

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Healthy Options at McDonald’s Boosts Sales

Monday, October 24th, 2011

When I think of McDonalds, the first thing that comes to my mind is a Big Mac Meal or a McChicken sandwich meal. However, their focus on new healthier options such as the fruit and maple oatmeal breakfast and the mango pineapple smoothie, seem to be paying off as McDonald’s has reported a 9% jump in profits in the third quarter.

During the quarter, the fast food giant focused heavily on its advertising on their healthier options.

McDonald’s has exceeded expectations by two cents as on Friday, as the corporation said earnings were $1.45 per share. Revenue it said, has increased by 14% to $7.17 billion.

Compared to the traditional strawberry milkshake which has 570 calories with 17g of total fat, the mango smoothie has 220 calories and 1g of total fat.

On the McDonald’s breakfast menu, the sausage and egg McMuffin has 450 calories and 27g in total fat whereas the fruit and maple oatmeal has 290 calories with 4.5g in total fat. Although to me, the sausage and egg McMuffin sounds more appealing!
Shares increased nearly 3% but despite the positive figures, McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner sounded a note of caution.
Skinner said commodity costs have risen ahead of expectations this year and more price increases are possible in the near term. He said, “The environment out there is still fragile.

“Economists say we’re off out of the recession, but it hardly feels that way.”

Skinner explained in a conference call with analysts, that unemployment is still above 9% in the U.S. and the stock market recently had its worst quarter in 2 years, the Chicago Tribune reports.

He said, “Consumers everywhere continue to be cautious and hesitant to spend.

“We remain in market share battle with every victory continuing to be hard won.”

In March, prices at McDonalds went up by 1.4% and 1% in May, after the increased costs of supplies, restaurant insurance quotes, competitors, supermarkets and the cost of hiring staff at their fast food restaurants.

Pete Bensen, McDonald’s CFO, said that customers have so far responded well to the price rises, adding that prices are rising faster at supermarkets and grocery stores.

Increasing more food products to their dollar menu has also helped in taking market share from competitors and rivals.

McDonald’s is also modernising their restaurants in the U.S and Europe, which is making operations more efficient and boosting sales.

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Calorie counting can lead to healthy eating

Monday, September 12th, 2011

In one of our previous blog post on QuoteSearcher we blogged about calorie counting and how a few chains have signed up to displaying nutritional information in outlets.

This week, fast food chains such as McDonalds have started to show calorie content on their meals.

Displaying calories is encouraged by the Government as part of the Public Health Responsibility Deal, to make people more informed about the food they eat, which is also approved by many obesity experts.

The Department of Health says that showing how many calories are in the food that people eat “makes people more aware of the energy content of their foods and does influence people’s choices”.

The scheme has been running in New York and studies have shown how consumers regularly underestimate the number of calories they eat. McDonalds have also done their own research regarding fast food and calorie intake and found that 8 out of 10 customers believe all companies should display calorie information, less than 1 in 5 said it would influence what they in.

This is a good start if around 15% of consumers change their eating habits and a good result achieved compared to other healthy eating promotions.

It could be a concern about how food manufacturers will react to calorie displays. Because only the calorie count needs to be displayed, not the actual content, some people believe that food outlets will cut their costs and restaurant insurance UK by adding poor quality filler ingredients to bulk out the food which reduces the calorie content, e.g. using starch.

It’s also a worry that more salt will be added to make up for the taste, which will lead to a meal of poor nutritional value.

It would be more useful for consumers if restaurants and fast food outlets would display the full nutritional breakdown of their meals including their fibre, sugar, fat, protein, salt and sugar levels.

Healthier food choices could be made if the full nutritional value was shown and poor quality establishments would have to improve their food and ingredients. It’s not just fast food restaurants that would suffer, posh, high quality restaurants would also struggle as their indulgent high fat, calorie and salt content foods would make a Big Mac look healthy.

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Biggest Ever Restaurant Plans for McDonalds in 2012

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Fast food restaurant chain, McDonalds will be the only branded food retailer feeding athletes at the London Olympics. In 2012, they will be the official restaurant for the ninth consecutive time at the Olympic Games.

Before the Games start, the global fast food chain plans to build a two-storey, 3,000-square-metre McDonald’s restaurant in Stratford, East London at the Olympic site. The huge restaurant will overshadow all of their other 32,000 McDonalds around the world.

However, this mega McDonald’s restaurant will be one of four on the Olympic site, including one McDonalds restaurant located in the athlete’s village.

The Olympics and Paralympics Games will be held over four weeks and McDonald’s is expected to serve thousands of their famous Big Macs and French fries during this time.

This venture will have an impact on the local economy by encouraging more people to eat out, purchasing supplies, equipment, restaurant insurance and providing more jobs in the local area. The fast food outlet will be hiring over 470 staff to serve the fast food during the 4 weeks of the Olympic Games.

McDonald’s UK profits are looking beefy as a strong rise in demand for its food from existing and new customers, drove their profits by more than one-third in 2010.

In the UK, the fast food restaurant chain has approximately 1,200 restaurants, which served over 80 million more customers last year.

More than 400 McDonalds in the UK operate a 24 hour service at least one day a week and around 80% of its restaurants are open from 6am. The longer opening hours has helped and pushed more sales for the global giant.

McDonald’s UK recorded pre-tax profits up 38% to £157m in the 12 months to December, on sales up 5% to £1.2 billion. The fast food chain says that they served 25 million more punters in the first quarter of 2011.

Today, McDonalds will be revealing details of its London 2012 sponsorship and publicising further deals of its ventures.

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