McDonald’s puts faith in high street with plan to create 24,000 jobs

McDonald’s plans to create 24,000 jobs in the UK and the Republic of Ireland over the next four years as it opens more than 200 restaurants in a sign of faith in the high street.
The expansion, its biggest since 2002, is part of a £1 billion investment by the chain and its franchisees, which already have 1,435 outlets in the UK employing 171,415 people. Four fifths of its restaurants are owned and operated by franchisees.
It represents a significant increase in investment by McDonald’s, which put £618 million into new restaurants and upgrades in the five years to 2023.
Under the plans to be announced this week, there will be a renewed focus on opening high street restaurants by the company, which is the biggest private employer of young people in Britain. McDonald’s said this demonstrated a “commitment to supporting successful high streets across the country as town and city centres continue to evolve and respond to a variety of challenges”. The rollout will test new restaurant formats, including smaller ones.
“We have come a long way since we first opened our doors in Woolwich 50 years ago,” Alistair Macrow, the chief executive of McDonald’s UK&I, said. “We have become an important part of communities across the UK and I’m delighted that, in this milestone year, we are able to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to growth and announce the creation of new jobs.
“We’re proud of what we have delivered in the last 50 years and are committed to investing in new opportunities and supporting growth across the UK.”
In a new report to celebrate its half-century as part of British life, McDonald’s highlights its contribution to the economy, including nearly £95 billion of gross value added spread nationwide. Since 1974, more than £51.56 billion has been spent on UK-based suppliers and farmers.
The world’s biggest restaurant group reported its first global drop in sales since the pandemic in July. UK financials are not covered in McDonald’s Group corporate earnings reporting.
The 1 per cent fall in same-store quarterly sales in its 41,800 outlets worldwide in the second quarter prompted Chris Kempczinski, 55, the chief executive of McDonald’s Corporation, to concede that it was “clear that our value leadership has recently shrunk”. He insisted that the company was “working to fix that with pace”. McDonald’s blamed a fall in the number of its customers in the United States, along with the “continued impact of the war in the Middle East” and weaker demand in China.