McDonald's plans to recruit 12,000 workers, launch 200 fast-food outlets in Italy

McDonald's is set to hire 12,000 workers and open at least 200 new restaurants in Italy by the year 2025. The plan was revealed by the company's Italian unit's chief executive officer, Dario Baroni early this week.

According to Reuters, the McDonald's Italy chief was quoted by the local online publication Affari&Finanza-la Repubblica as saying that they will add thousands of additional workers within the 4-year timeframe. Apparently, the new hires will be assigned to the 200 outlets that the Italian unit of the American fast-food chain is planning to build.

"Italy is seen by the group as one of the markets with the greatest potential on a global scale," the McDonald's Italia chief stated. Baroni went on to say that in the next four years, the company is aiming to have a total of 800 restaurants in the country.

Currently, McDonald's have 630 outlets in Italy and the number of existing workers is 25,000. They are also increasing the headcount of the staff to 40,000 by 2025.

Dario Baroni also explained that the expansion plans and massive recruitment were put in place as they see Italy as one of the markets that have the biggest potential to grow on a global level.

In fact, Wanted in Rome reported that the leaders of McDonald's Italy have started to see significant growth that was credited to the surging take away, Drive-thru, and delivery orders. It was said that the transactions in the mentioned ordering options had boosted the total sales from less than 40% to over 60%.

The decrease in profits was due to the COVID-19 pandemic but McDonald's Italy has slowly been recovering through delivery, drive-thru, and take away orders. At the height of the pandemic, the restaurant chain's revenue in 2020 reportedly dropped to €1.4 billion compared to €1.6 billion in 2019.

Meanwhile, McDonald's first landed in Italy in 1986 and the very first outlet was built in Rome, near the famous Spanish Steps. The monumental stairway of 135 steps is one of the tourist attractions in the area so the burger joint's outlet there did so well. Eventually, more branches were launched and the country has more than 600 locations now.