By Lisa Baertlein

(Reuters) - McDonald's Corp CEO Don Thompson sure could use a break.

The head of the world's biggest restaurant chain, who for much of his two years at the helm has been battling to spark sales growth in the United States and Europe, got battered by headline-grabbing bad news in late July.

In the final days of the month, its China business was hit with a food-safety scare involving a key supplier; the chain got ensnared in the West's sanctions standoff with Russia; burger flippers at U.S. restaurants claimed an incremental win from the National Labor Relations Board in their fight to hold McDonald's responsible for the actions of franchisees; and, a Texas jury slapped the company with a $27 million verdict. Add to all that its results showed second-quarter profit dropped more than expected.

"They're under siege on three continents," said Howard Penney, restaurant analyst at Hedgeye Risk Management, an investment research firm.

To be sure, the company's famous name and the ubiquity of its restaurants worldwide help to fuel the media storm, said Penney: "McDonald's is a pawn in many instances around the world. It's an easy target."

Such upheavals are not uncommon for McDonald's and other global power houses, including Coca-Cola Co and Wal-Mart Stores Inc, experts said, though perhaps not quite so many in such a short period.

In a statement a McDonald's spokeswoman said: "In the last few weeks, we’ve seen issues in various parts of the world which directly or indirectly affect our brand and others. We have 35,000 McDonald’s restaurants in 120 countries, and skilled professional communications teams in every area of the world."

She said that dealing with a 24/7 news cycle around the world is par for the course, and the communications teams address such issues so that the company can keep its focus on serving customers.

Thompson was not made available for comment.





DEFAULT BRAND

Analysts and investors said the latest, largely external events appear to pose manageable risk to McDonald's profits, but they are a headache at a time when the company is grappling with intense competition, shifting consumer tastes and service slow-downs stemming from the menu additions of everything from salads and wraps to lattes and smoothies aimed at broadening its audience and boosting sales.

Branding expert Robert Passikoff, said McDonald’s needs to find a way to stand out from the crowd.

"McDonald's has reached the point where it's become a default brand. It's there. That's it," said Passikoff, president of Brand Keys.

Shares in McDonald's are up less than 7 percent since Thompson took the helm on July 1, 2012, lagging the S&P 500's gain of nearly 42 percent in that period.





Investors, analysts and franchisees are clamoring for the company to stop trying to be "all things to all people". They want it to simplify its unwieldy menu and point to the success of rivals like Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc and In-N-Out Burger, which have won passionate fans by selling just a few items.

McDonald's was caught up in the latest China food safety scare after a July 20 television expose showed workers allegedly mishandling meat at Shanghai Husi Food Co Ltd, a factory owned by OSI Group LLC, a major supplier to the chain.

When the story broke, McDonald's China business had been rebounding from the double whammy of a food safety scare and a bird flu outbreak that crushed sales in 2013.

McDonald's roughly 2,000 restaurants in China suffered meat shortages after it ended its relationship with OSI China.

Executives from the chain's long-struggling Japanese unit, McDonald's Holdings Co Ltd, who were forced to find alternate chicken McNugget supplies, said the scare sent sales down as much as 20 percent.





RUSSIA CONCERN

Seattle-based portfolio manager Bill Smead, whose firm Smead Capital Management holds nearly 516,000 shares in McDonald's, took news of the China food scandal in stride.

"We assume that something is going to go amazingly haywire with companies in China," said Smead, who added that he has ceased adding to McDonald’s holdings while the company works through its “tribulation” period.

About 15 percent of McDonald's operating profit comes from the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa unit that includes China and Japan, said Bernstein Research analyst Sara Senatore.

Story continues