McDonald’s revenue surges as it navigates spikes in food and labour costs
McDondald’s revenue has surged to its highest level since 2016, it confirmed in its fourth quarter results yesterday, as it successfully offset a spike in food and labour costs.
Price increases on Big Macs, Chicken McNuggets and other food items helped the fast-food chain secure $23.2bn in global revenue, a jump of more than 20 per cent in comparison with 2019.
While it has been knocked by distribution hang-ups, which have led to shortages of certain products in Japan and Taiwan, the chain’s sales swelled 13.8 per cent in the final three months of 2021, its biggest quarterly jump on record.
Profit also soared nearly 60 per cent from a year prior to $7.5bn.
McDonald’s boss Chris Kempczinski hailed 2021 as a “banner year for McDonald’s, despite the continued disruptions” of the pandemic.
The company expect inflationary pressures to persist throughout the first half of the year, after food prices grew around four per cent last year.
Chief financial officer, Kevin Ozan added: “That’s where we keep a really close eye as we take pricing, is how customers are reacting, both in terms of customer research and how they view value and whether they’re still coming in from a transaction standpoint.”