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McDonald’s brews up a new revenue stream by merging cars and coffee

Internationally, McDonald’s recent financial results were well down on the same time last year, and it’s trying a range of things to counter the decline, including offering customised burgers. In New Zealand, sales figures weren’t available for this year, but the arrival of Georgie Pie helped lift performance in 2013. And it’s aiming to continue that growth by offering McCafe coffee via drive-thru. 

Communications manager Kim Bartlett says McCafe was launched in New Zealand over a decade ago, and currently around two thirds of its 163 restaurants include a McCafe (we asked for McCafe’s sales growth in that time, but we have yet to hear back). She says New Zealanders consume about 70 percent of their coffees at independent outlets, with the remainder being branded chains. So McDonald’s sees an opportunity to increase its share of that segment and it’s launched a campaign via DDB that shows how annoying getting a coffee in the normal fashion can be compared to the ease of its Drive-Thru offering.

“In the last two years there has been a great deal of work done on evolving our coffee offering, including rolling out group handle machines, barista-training and developing a stronger blend in line with New Zealand tastes,” she says. “Drive-Thru generally accounts for about 60 percent of sales at McDonald’s restaurants, so the opportunity to offer McCafe coffee with the convenience and speed of Drive-Thru is a great competitive advantage.” 

She says the initial customer reaction since launch has been very positive and it’s seen a double digit increase in McCafe coffee sales. 

Now it just needs to get Jerry Seinfeld on board.

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