Gastronomie: McDonald's tauscht US-Chef nach schwachen Zahlen

McDonald's has replaced its top US executive after a weak quarterly performance. Skye Anderson will immediately take over Joe Erlinger's role in the United States, according to the fast-food giant on Tuesday. CEO Chris Kempczinski cited failures in executing the sales strategy in the second quarter as the reason for the change. The company's same-store sales growth in the US was 0.8% below Wall Street expectations.

McDonald's failed to win back lower-income customers who had reduced their visits to the restaurant. The company did not have a strategy problem, but simply did not execute the plans at the required level, Kempczinski explained. An abundance of advertising promotions overwhelmed employees in the restaurants, leading to long wait times for customers.

Furthermore, it was wrong to scrap digital discounts while a new menu priced under three dollars was introduced, which did not generate enough new revenue. This was responsible for two-thirds of the missed sales targets. Rectifying this "business failure" will be Anderson's focus for the next two quarters. The new US CEO has been with McDonald's for 26 years and was most recently responsible for the company's US operations.

She will now lead the roughly 14,000 restaurants in the United States and drive a new strategy for a turnaround. Erlinger served as the head of the US division since 2019 and steered the business, including through an E. coli outbreak in 2024. He will remain with McDonald's as a consultant until early 2027. The company stated the change was part of a plan initiated at the beginning of the year.