After the company CEO’s had been expelled in November, McDonald’s is finishing off an turbulent year. For the first time, burger giant annual sales exceeded 100 billion dollars and recorded its highest sales from the same shop in over a decade, with growth in all its globally.
While the company moves under new leadership and has been behind it for a turbulent year, possible challenges have arisen already in 2020.
As a new virus is spreading across the world, McDonald’s shuttered restaurants in five Chinese cities. Countries started to evacuate their citizens from the Chinese area, which was most severely affected by a new virus that has now infected more people than the SARS in China.
The number of cases confirmed in the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak rose to 5,974, with 5,327 in mainland China.
During a conference call scheduled early, Wall Street analysts will look to find out about the effect of the Coronavirus on restaurant operations.
McDonald’s actions fell by more than 1 percent before the start of the bell, despite a strong quarter and year.
Delivery was a big driver of the gains this year. Delivery is now available at 25,000 restaurants worldwide and brought in $4 billion in sales. The company added DoorDash as a U.S. partner in July, ending its exclusive partnership with UberEats. It partnered with GrubHub in September.
McDonald’s fourth quarter net income rose 11% to $1.6 billion, or $2.08 per share. Excluding one-time items like tax benefits, the company earned $1.97 per share. That beat Wall Street’s forecast of $1.96, according to FactSet.
Fourth quarter revenue was up 4% to $5.3 billion, which was in line with estimates.
Same-store sales or sales at stores open at least 13 months jumped 5.9% worldwide in the October-December, topping analysts expectations for the Chicago company
McDonald’s former President and CEO Steve Easterbrook was pushed out in November after violating company policy by having a consensual relationship with an employee. He was replaced by Chris Kempczinski, who most recently led the company’s U.S. operations.
