McDonald’s to launch table service in Ireland

Table service is to be rolled out across McDonald’s Irish restaurants on the back of the operation here bucking the fast food giant’s global trend and increasing sales in the past year.

Globally, McDonald’s suffered a downturn in sales last year, decreasing by $665m to $27.4bn but here revenues increased by 3% to €80.8m.

New accounts for McDonald’s Restaurants of Ireland Ltd show that increased costs, including a €9m spend on three new outlets, resulted in pre-tax profits declining by 8.6% to €13.6m last year.

McDonald’s Ireland chief executive, Adrian Crean, said: “The McDonald’s brand in Ireland continues to go from strength to strength”.

He said the rise in revenues last year was attributable to sales growth in existing restaurants along with revenues at three new locations in Kilkenny, Ballincollig, and Dublin Airport.

Asked how the Irish operation has bucked the global trend in 2014 of a downturn in McDonald’s sales, Mr Crean said: “We continue to evolve the customer experience and make the brand relevant to our customers.”

Mr Crean said that, as part of this in 2016, table service is to be rolled out through a number of McDonald’s restaurants and “we would hope that the vast majority of restaurants would have table service over the next two to three years”.

He said that the move is in response to customer feedback. Mr Crean also said that McDonald’s deepening relationship with Ireland’s agri-sector resonates with customers.