Fast-food chain McDonald’s has slowly started to see revival of sales after the coronavirus pandemic affects businesses during lockdown. Per day per store McDelivery sales have bounced back to 70% of the pre-COVID levels in June 2020, Amit Jatia, Vice-Chairman of Westlife Development Limited said at a virtual event on Friday. While eatery and restaurant business remained affected due to the lockdown, McDonald’s ramped up its delivery offerings with contactless take-out and on-the-go services on McDelivery app. It also partnered with food delivery aggregators to make its offerings available to a wider audience. “Convenience Platform (Delivery, take-out, drive-thru) sales bounced back to pre-COVID levels, for operational stores. Per day per store take-out sales surged 1.7 times compared to pre-COVID levels,” it said.
The Westlife Development-run QSR is now focussing on restructuring costs and other changes on the expansion front and supply chain. We are completely reimagining the supply chain, restaurant design and will think of ways to improve productivity of the crew labour. Since convenience channels are adding a lot of value, it remains to be seen as to what happens to the stores now, Amit Jatia said, announcing the Q1 results of Westlife Development, which runs McDonald’s in West and South India. “This year will be lost on expansion. We did open one store. Four stores ready will be launched when things stabilize. Will look for good location deals,” he said at the event. McDonald’s currently has 320 outlets and 224 McCafés.
Meanwhile, the company remains optimistic of recovery even while the country continues to see a surge in coronavirus cases. The company said that it has a robust strategy in place based on the customer insights, has a pipeline of big and bold initiatives, “and a strong checks-and-balances system for cost optimization,” giving it a springboard to drive quick recovery. The company also sees a major opportunity in morphing to an omni-channel brand as a large chunk of its sales is now being driven by digital.
