McDonald's May Cut Franchisees

Oak Brook, Illinois-McDonald's Corp. is expected tocut the number of its franchisees in the coming months, Dow JonesNewswires reports. The company previously announced plans toimprove customer experience, cut corporate overhead and eliminatefinancially weak franchisees in the United States whilestrengthening its bottom line.

Franchisees and Wall Street sources say company officials haveoutlined the proposed downsizing in recent days. The size of theanticipated reduction is uncertain, but some sources say as many asone-fourth of the company's U.S. franchisees might bevulnerable. A McDonald's spokesman strongly denied thathundreds of franchisees may be asked or forced to leave the system,according to Dow. -Crain's Chicago Business