You can be on Entrepreneur’s cover!

McDonald's Sales Surge as All-Day Breakfast Proves a Hit With Customers All-day breakfast was introduced in the U.S. in October.

By Reuters

entrepreneur daily

This story originally appeared on Reuters

Mcdonalds | Official Website

McDonald's Corp reported better-than-expected quarterly same-restaurant sales as the launch of all-day breakfasts proved to be a hit with diners in the United States and demand continued to recover in China.

The world's biggest restaurant chain's shares jumped 3.4 percent in premarket trading on Monday.

McDonald's introduced all-day breakfasts in October in the United States, allowing customers to tuck into its popular Egg McMuffins and Hash Browns any time of the day.

The move was aimed at countering increasing competition from chains such as Wendy's Co, Starbucks Corp and Burger King, which have been doubling down on their breakfast offerings.

McDonald's returned to sales growth in the United States in its third quarter after two years of no growth, following new Chief Executive Steve Easterbrook's turnaround plan that included cutting down on menu items, improving delivery times and refranchising more restaurants.

"In a sign that its turnaround efforts are paying dividends McDonald's latest results show continued progress," Neil Saunders, chief executive of research firm Conlumino, wrote in a note.

Sales at McDonald's U.S. restaurants open at least 13 months rose 5.7 percent, handily beating the average estimate of 2.7 percent.

"As we enter 2016, we expect continued positive top-line momentum across all segments," said Easterbrook, who took the helm last year, in a statement on Monday.

The company does not break out China sales but said sales in its "high growth" markets, which include Russia and China, rose 3 percent.

McDonald's is recovering in China following a food safety scandal that broke in July 2014 and hammered sales in the country for at least a year.

McDonald's also said it would refranchise about 4,000 restaurants through 2018 to become 95 percent franchised, up from its previous target of selling 3,500.

Global same-restaurant sales rose 5 percent, above the 3.2 percent expected by analysts polled by research firm Consensus Metrix.

The company's net income rose 9.9 percent to $1.21 billion, or $1.31 per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of $1.23 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue fell 3.5 percent to $6.34 billion, mainly due to a strong dollar, but beat the average analyst estimate of $6.22 billion.

McDonalds' shares have risen 23 percent in the past six months, outperforming those of rivals Starbucks and Dunkin' Brands Group Inc.

(Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Business News

Mark Zuckerberg Told Meta Engineers to 'Figure Out' Snapchat's Privacy Protections: 'We Have No Analytics on Them'

Recently unsealed court documents detail "Project Ghostbusters," Meta's project to work around Snapchat's end-to-end encryption to intercept data.

Business News

Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Multibillion-Dollar Crypto Fraud

Southern District of New York Judge Lewis Kaplan said that the loss amount to the victims of Bankman-Fried's crimes surpassed $550 million.

Growing a Business

The Brand Whiz Behind Sun Bum Is Famous For Making Boring Products Fun. Then, This One Stumped Him.

Everything Tom Rinks touched turned to gold until he took on a brand launch at Target that fizzled. Then, he found a creepy doll on Ebay, and he saw a way forward.

Thought Leaders

How To Improve Your Soft Skills and Emotional Intelligence in 7 Easy Steps

Using these simple but effective approaches will help a person in their business, life and relationships.