Dive Brief:
- McDonald’s has created a Restaurant Experience Team to oversee and integrate a variety of functions at McDonald’s, including “operations, supply chain, franchising, development, restaurant design, delivery and Speedee Labs,” according to a message sent by CEO Chris Kempzcinski to the brand’s system on Tuesday. This unit replaces McDonald’s customer experience team.
- The team will be led by Jill McDonald, who is being promoted from president of international operated markets to chief restaurant experience officer on May 1. The brand is creating a new Global Chief Restaurant Officer position, but has not yet filled it.
- The Restaurant Experience Team unit will include three new teams dedicated to specific menu categories: chicken, beef and beverage/dessert, according to a press release announcing the changes.
Dive Insight:
McDonald’s framed the changes as a way to preserve recent gains in market share and protect the company from competition by category specific brands, such as KFC, Chick-fil-A, Raising Cane’s and beverage-focused chains like Dutch Bros.
“McDonald’s is competing against specialists. We’re bringing a specialist’s focus into our operations,” the company wrote in the release.
The new menu-focused teams will have “accountability for growing our global share in these priority areas,” Kempczinski said in the internal announcement.
In recent quarters, McDonald’s has focused on new menu items and LTOs to drive sales in these categories. In October, the brand launched the Chicken Big Mac nationwide in an LTO, and in February Kempczinski said the chain would bring back Snack Wraps and chicken strips this year.
In a video posted on LinkedIn, Kempczinski said the Restaurant Experience Team team was an evolution of a customer experience team McDonald’s launched several years ago. By combining a number of vertical responsibilities into one team, Kempczinsk said, the brand will make possible greater horizontal collaboration between supply chain, operations and restaurant design, which he said would make it easier to implement ambitious changes at the store level. The Restaurant Experience Team will also try to ensure that new technologies improve unit economics.
The Golden Arches is far from alone in making menu-focused pivots. Wendy’s is also looking to strengthen its hand in the chicken category and grow its beverage menu. Jollibee, an expanding Filipino chain, launched a lineup of premium sips last year intended to draw younger consumers. Sonic made a similar beverage play in June.
