McDonald’s USA Proves Taste And Quality Drive Sales After One Year Of Fresh Beef

McDonald’s USA gains burger share in the informal eating out category for the first time in five years

CHICAGO, IL (June 24, 2019) – Today, McDonald’s USA announced that after one year of serving fresh beef quarter-pound burgers across the U.S.*, the transition empowered the company to gain burger share in the IEO (informal eating out) category for the first time in five years. 

The fresh beef transition started as a customer-inspired initiative, to provide customers with a hotter, juicier burger, and proved to increase quarter-pound burger sales. The introduction of fresh beef quarter-pound burgers in May 2018 started strong, resulting in a more than 50% increase in quarter-pound sales during the first month of the national fresh beef quarter-pound burger marketing promotions, and sales remained strong throughout the year.  

“We’re proud that taste and food quality drives sales,” said Chris Kempczinski, President McDonald’s USA. “Our numbers speak for themselves, with the introduction of fresh beef and the promotions including fresh beef quarter-pound burgers helping result in a sustained quarter-pound burger sales increase 30% on average throughout the entire first year. And ultimately, McDonald’s sold 40 million more quarter-pound burgers in Q1 2019 than in Q1 2018.” 

The transition to fresh beef was the most significant change to the McDonald’s U.S. system and operations since All Day Breakfast, and the company was able to execute the rollout seamlessly without any interruption to supply across nearly 3,000 independent franchisees. 

“We’ve proven that when we listen to our customers, good things happen,” said Marion Gross, SVP and Chief Supply Chain Officer, North America for McDonald’s. “But we could not have been successful without our supply chain partners who shared learnings and best practices to ensure the massive transformation went smoothly and elevated our existing food quality and safety procedures.” 

To accommodate fresh beef, McDonald’s introduced specially designed packaging for fresh beef patties, developed dedicated kitchen utensils, added new refrigerators designed to maintain proper refrigeration temperatures and increased the required internal temperature standard for cooked patties in order to optimize quality and safeguard against any possible food safety issues.

Fresh beef quarter-pound burgers is just one example of McDonald’s evolution and food journey to build a better McDonald’s.  

*Weight before cooking 4 oz. Fresh beef available at most restaurants in contiguous U.S. Not available in Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. Territories.

About McDonald’s USA

McDonald’s serves a variety of menu options made with quality ingredients to more than 25 million customers every day. Ninety-five percent of McDonald’s 14,000 U.S. restaurants are independently owned and operated by business men and women. For more information, visit www.mcdonalds.com, or follow us on Twitter @McDonalds and Facebook at www.facebook.com/mcdonalds.