McDonald’s Corp is hoping a leadership shake-up for its US business will help it fight off intensifying competition.
The world’s biggest hamburger chain said on Thursday that the current president of McDonald’s USA, Jan Fields, is to be replaced by its global chief restaurant officer, Jeff Stratton, effective Dec. 1.
The announcement comes less than a week after the fast-food giant reported its first monthly sales drop in nearly a decade.
A McDonald’s spokeswoman said the company’s chief executive officer Don Thompson and Fields are long-time friends and that they discussed the need for a change at the top.
A number of business factors played a role in the decision, but recent sales figures were not among them, McDonald’s spokeswoman Heidi Barker Sa Shekhem said.
“When you look at the size and scope of McDonald’s, there are numerous factors go into a decision like this,” she said.
“It’s difficult to isolate factors,” she said.
After years of outperforming its rivals, McDonald’s has struggled recently amid intensifying competition in the US and a persistently weak economy abroad.
Last month, the company reported its first monthly sales decline since March 2003.
In a recent conference call with analysts, Thompson said the company would return its focus on its “Dollar Menu” after efforts to shift customers to a slightly more expensive “Extra Value Menu” fell flat.
That emphasis on value is in contrast to rivals such as Wendy’s and Burger King, which have been introducing more premium offerings.
Taco Bell, known for its affordable Mexican-style fare, also introduced its higher-end Cantina Bell bowls earlier this year.
The moves are widely seen as a reaction to the growing popularity of chains such as Chipotle Mexican Grill and Panera Bread Co, which offer better quality food for slightly higher prices.
The US accounts for about a third of McDonald’s total revenue, while Europe accounts for about 40 percent; the region encompassing Asia, the Middle East and Africa accounts for 22 percent.
Thompson, who took over as CEO this summer, has also served as president of McDonald’s USA.
McDonald’s has more than 34,000 locations around the world, with about 14,000 in the US.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six