Golden arches begin to lose sheen

THE famous statistic was that one McDonald’s opened somewhere in the world every day as the firm of the golden arches relentlessly pursued its ambition to become a global phenomenon.

However, these heady days of high growth are not likely to be revisited as McDonalds has announced its first quarterly loss ever in the US and is closing 175 stores this year on top of the 163 closures last year.

From now on, its strategy is to retrench from massive expansion and concentrate on growing sales in the outlets already up and running. This trend would appear to have taken hold at its Irish operation, which now runs 67 restaurants.