12/16/2014

McDonald's Has Its Worst Month In 10 Years. Again.

Ronald McDonald is having a second helping, and not the good kind. McDonald’s reported Tuesday that global sales at stores open more than a year dropped 3.7 percent in August. That was the company’s worst month for what are known as "same-store sales," a key retail metric, since the Spring of 2003, according to Mark Kalinowski, a managing director at Janney Capital Markets. This is the second month in a row that McDonald’s has reported global same-store sales that set 10-year marks for awfulness.

McDonald's Corporation today announced that global comparable sales decreased 3.7% in August. Performance by segment was as follows:

U.S. down 2.8%
Europe down 0.7%
Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA) down 14.5%

"During August, McDonald's global business faced several headwinds that impacted sales performance," said McDonald's President and Chief Executive Officer Don Thompson. "As a System, we are diligently working to effectively navigate the current market conditions to regain momentum. For the long term, we remain focused on strengthening the key foundational elements of our service, operations and marketing to maximize the impact of our strategic growth priorities for our customers and our business."