The complexity issue

For the last 12–18 months, the majority of McDonald’s focus has been on the in-restaurant experience. The aforementioned EOTF designs being the main draw. But also kitchen procedures and the rollout of products that simply take more time to prepare, like fresh beef Quarter Pounders and Signature Crafted items.

Easterbrook said McDonald’s has “worked our way through that now,” and can get back to the basics of running better restaurants. The starting point: a focus on the drive thru during peak hours of breakfast, he said, adding it’s “clearly an opportunity for us.”

“And yes, we managed to reduce service times, which was really encouraging,” Easterbrook said. “It was a later start in the quarter. But certainly, the enthusiasm in the co-op to co-op competitions was great. So we're going to continue with a series of these throughout this year.”

He said service times are coming down but wouldn’t provide exact figures just yet. Easterbrook did note that some international markets, like Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain, are seeing anywhere between 20–40 seconds taken off.

In April, McDonald’s said it would phase out its Signature Crafted Recipe lineup in favor of a new Quarter Pounder collection. The culprit was convenience. CFO Kevin Ozan said earlier in the year several menu changes, including the Signature Crafted items, were sagging drive thrus and adding complexity into the business.

Easterbrook said Wednesday that McDonald’s is always playing a balancing act when it comes to menu innovation and how that affects everything else. How do you create new news to remain top of mind for consumers, but not make it so complex that it starts to become a challenge for teams and, therefore, inadvertently impact guests?

McDonald’s answer was to build upon its core menu. “So when you can start to use ingredients we already have in our restaurants on menu items that our crew and managers are very familiar with preparing, it really is a seamless activity,” he said.

Hence, the Quarter Pounder focus. There will be new items, likely more in the limited-time offer realm, however. “Just to try a bit of a balance and a bit of excitement. Our regular customers like trying something different every now and then, but then typically revert back to what they know and what they like,” he said.