McDonald's US Sales Slightly Rise In Q3: Is The Fast Food Chain's Turnaround Starting?

Signs of a turnaround for McDonald's struggling sales seemed not too far from becoming a reality anytime soon.

On Thursday, Oct.23, the fast food burger giant reported that its global same-store sales saw an increase of 4 percent for the third quarter of 2015 and cited that such gains are brought by growth coming from a number of its markets worldwide.

CEO Steve Easterbrook said that a rebound in the restaurant's quarterly sales prove that the plans he laid down for a turnaround seemed to start working.

"The progress we have made in a short amount of time gives me confidence we're making the right moves to turn around our business and reposition McDonald's as a modern, progressive burger company," said Easterbrook.

In the U.S., McDonald's saw a surprise increase in sales of up to 0.9 percent from restaurants that had been operating for at least 13 months. The report, which noted how the market suffered from a two-year stint of quarterly decline in sales, had attributed some changes to the burger chain's menu as a huge driving force for the increase. These include the introduction of a new Premium Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Deluxe sandwich and the revival of using butter on its Egg McMuffins instead of using margarine.

"People have more choices than ever about where to dine," said Easterbrook. "We want to give them more reasons to dine at McDonald's by recommitting to hot fresh food, fast friendly service and a contemporary restaurant experience."

Under Easterbrook's leadership which has been for eight months now, the company had been doing a number of changes. First among them is the pledge to serve chicken that is absolutely antibiotic free. The company has also been trying out new food concepts that include kale dishes and premium burgers that contain a third of a pound of meat. Other measures that were taken include streamlining the menu in order to speed up service and giving authority to regional markets when there's a need to alter the menu to suit regional tastes and needs.

The earnings report, according to McDonald's does not reflect yet the burger chain's performance after introducing the all-day breakfast menu. However, McDonald's officials are speculating that it will be another success.

Howard Penney, a managing director and restaurants analyst for independent investment research firm Hedgeye, said that McDonald's all-day breakfast "could be another game changer." A proprietary research showed that 33.3 percent of people would choose going to McDonald's more often than before so long as they know they could get breakfast at the restaurant during lunch time.

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