McDonald’s beat Wall Street expectations in its second-quarter performance, posting a 3.9 percent U.S. comparable sales increase thanks to beverage value promotion and the launch of its Signature Crafted premium sandwich platform.
The brand’s system-wide sales increased 8 percent and revenue came in about $90 million more than expected.
“We’re building a better McDonald’s and more customers are noticing,” McDonald’s president and CEO Steve Easterbrook says in a statement. “Our relentless commitment to running great restaurants and keeping the customer at the center of everything we do is generating broad-based strength and momentum across our entire business.”
McDonald’s delivered its strongest global comparable sales and guest count results in more than five years, and Easterbrook says the company is introducing its Velocity Growth Plan accelerators in restaurants around the world.
Following its investor day earlier this year, McDonald’s introduced the plan, which will bring mobile order and pay to 20,000 restaurants by the end of this year and will focus on accelerating delivery growth. McDonald’s says that it’s continuing to build momentum in the U.S. by executing strategies to “enhance convenience, strengthen value, and innovate around the menu to bring more customers to McDonald’s more often.”
Operating income increased 5 percent for the quarter, and rose by 24 percent since Q2 of last year. While revenue for the quarter was higher than expected, it still dropped by 3 percent over the year to about $6.05 billion. Shares of McDonald’s stock hit all-time highs in Tuesday trading, rising more than 4 percent.
“Whilst we’re encouraged by our results from the first half of 2017, we’re not complacent. Today, we’re acting like a leadership brand, taking on new challenges and opportunities and moving with a greater sense of purpose and urgency,” Easterbrook says in a statement. “We’re building on our momentum, leveraging our size and scale and executing with greater precision against our priorities to retain, regain, and convert customers by giving them even more reasons to visit and enjoy McDonald’s.”
