Japan’s version of the fast food giant has surpassed an already optimistic forecast and landed in a Big Mac truck load of cash.
In the fall of 2017 McDonald’s Japan already had some happy news that they were well on track to their best year ever, surpassing 20 billion (US$187.8 million) in net income.
Now, their year-end report shows that they considerably undershot the last forecast and actually pulled in a whopping 24 billion yen ($225.4 million). This also drawfs their 2016 earnings of 5.3 billion yen ($49.8 million) by four and a half times.
Many may scoff at these figures showing an already huge multinational corporation getting huger, but the comeback made by this clown-backed brand in Japan over the past years has been nothing short of amazing.
After getting rocked by back-to-back scandals involving tainted food, McDonald’s fell into a massive tailspin so deep in the red that James Cameron wouldn’t be able to find it – right down to a rock bottom loss of 34.9 billion yen ($327.7 million).
However, under the stewardship of CEO Sarah Cassanova, the organization began to focus on improvements in the quality of food, promotions, service, and employee treatment to pull McDonald’s out of the abyss and into the stratosphere.
As such, be prepared to find more McDonald’s opening up around the country as they try to capitalize on this upward momentum.
Even online – where anti-McDonald’s sentiment is usually at its most visceral – people have softened somewhat but still aren’t confident that the restaurant’s fortunes are well-founded or long for this world.
“If they open more branches, it’ll just go back to the way it was before. They should focus on what they have currently to keep it going.”
“I think the economy overall has been doing well. McDonald’s is just riding that wave.”
“It’s because they stopped the 24-hour service like most places recently. You can’t make money in the middle of the night these days.”
“It’s just an illusionary profit from cost-cutting.”
“They shouldn’t open any more branches.”
“Getting rid of Harada (previous CEO) helped. He had bright ideas like hiding the menu.”
“Great! They’re making enough money, so I don’t need to go there.”
“Everything in McDonald’s just tastes like pickles and ketchup.”
You might not notice, but this is a huge improvement compared to comments people made about McDonald’s only a couple years ago.
However, just to dispel a few of the comments’ reasons for this success: After Harada was replaced by Cassanova, the organization reportedly pivoted from cost-cutting to a spending strategy, closing branches so they could afford increases in employee wages, cleaning crews, and food such as the higher quality and higher priced “Gran Menu.”
▼ Then again, those cheapskates wouldn’t even spring for a lousy “d”
The economy certainly hasn’t done anyone anyone in fast food any favors recently either, as other restaurants like Mos Burger and KFC, are showing relatively little signs of improvement to their bottom line.
These are important factors because the accomplishments of McDonald’s are, at least partly, the result of practices that focused on treating customers and workers better and should be seen as an example for other businesses to follow.
Source: Yomiuri Online, Golden Times
Images: SoraNews24