McDonald's will announce changes to Menu Next Month, says Steve Easterbrook

The Fast food restaurant company McDonald's reported first quarter results on Friday. The company reported that sales have declined and earnings per share missed Wall Street expectations. Steve Easterbrook, new chief executive of McDonald's, said that the company will announce changes to its menu in May. According to Easterbrook, the change in menu is a part of a company-wide turnaround bid.

On a call after the company’s announcement, Easterbrook told investors that it is necessary to fix the fundamentals right now. Easterbrook also said that he is not looking for incremental steps.

McDonald's, which is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, said that the company’s diluted earnings per share for the first quarter of 2015 fell more than 30% from last year to about 84 US cents. As per reports, the diluted earnings per share was far below the $US1.06 a share forecast by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

McDonald's reported that its revenue fell about 11% from a year earlier to $US5.96 billion. Earlier, analyst had forecasted that the revenue would be $US6 billion. In the domestic market, the company has been increasingly usurped by restaurant company Chipotle Mexican Grill and chain of bakery-café fast casual restaurants Panera. Such companies have grown by their speed and higher-quality ingredients.

Easterbrook has made a number changes to put the company back on the track. He has simplified offerings at its more than 10,000 restaurants across the United States. In addition, he introduced premium sirloin burgers and also promised to limit the use of antibiotics in chicken.

Easterbrook said, “McDonald's is preparing to introduce more new permanent and limited-time-only items, and that finding a balance between adding to menu boards while keeping them simple enough to be replicated at its 36,000 restaurants worldwide would be critical.” According to him, if the company lurches too far one way, then there will not enough excitement.