McDonald's to launch 1,900 new stores this year

McDonald’s is expanding further this year and revealed its plans to open 1,900 branches. The growth that the brand has displayed recently was said to have encouraged the fast-food chain to build more stores in 2023.

The company’s targeted number of McDonald's stores made it its largest growth move since 2014. More than 400 of the new outlets are to be built in the United States or its other global markets such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and France.

The rest, which is 1,500 stores, are set to be opened by licensees and affiliate markets that include 900 in China. According to Yahoo Finance, McDonald’s is planning to invest $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion in capital expenditures.

The chain’s chief financial officer and executive vice president, Ian Borden, said that half of the total investment “will be dedicated to new net openings." He mentioned this plan during the call with investors after the release of McDonald’s fourth-quarter earnings results.

"Overall, we anticipate over 4% unit growth from about 1,500 net restaurant additions in 2023. We expect this will contribute, along with restaurants opened in 2022, nearly 1.5% to systemwide sales growth," Borden said. "The growth in the U.S. is still going to be rather nominal. At best, I think they are going to open about 100 stores, then, those that are closed, maybe another 80 get to about a net number of about 20."

It was noted that this growth strategy of McDonald’s marks the first time it has made a big push in increasing its locations since 2014. In any case, Restaurant Business previously reported that McDonald’s also added new locations in its biggest markets last year and that was the first time it happened.

Based on the report, the fast-food brand ended 2022 with 13,444 stores in the U.S. which is more that the number it added in 2021. This year, the plan is to expand further with the establishment of more restaurants.

“Our strong comp and brand performance has given us the right to build new units at a faster rate than we have historically,” McDonald’s chief executive officer, Chris Kempczinski, previously told investors.

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