McDonald’s China is planning to open 250 new stores in the country this year. The company will concentrate its expansion to lower tier cities and customer's online experience as its fast-food chain recovers from the OSI China problem experience in 2014.
The company will push for digital ordering for made-to-order burgers, according to Shanghai Daily.
The chief executive officer of McDonald's China, Phyllis Cheung, said that the new stores will be situated in third and fourth-tier cities. Furthermore, the company will equip 150 existing stores in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou with self-service ordering machines by the end of this year. The machines will help consumers customize their burgers.
Talking during a media interview, the CEO said, "Within two to three years, we hope mobile ordering and other digital capabilities would cover all of our restaurants in China, and we will also launch our proprietary smartphone application for ordering by the end of this year."
Sales in China for the fast-food company, which has more than 2,200 outlets, increased by 4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015. According to the president and CEO, Steve Easterbrook, the growth is comparable to a 5-percent increase on a global scale. Easterbrook was speaking earlier this week during an earnings conference call.
On Wednesday, Jan. 27, McDonald's China launched the "Experience of the future" flagship restaurant in Wangfujing Street, Beijing. The flagship enables customers to customize their burgers by ordering through the store's official WeChat account and have them delivered to their tables at the comfort of their home.
The upcoming McDonald's concept in China will open in Shenzhen sometime this year. Amid increasing concerns about China's declining economic growth, Cheung pointed out that there are plans to transform the existing stores into concept one as a way of reaching out to a wider consumer base.