McDonald's UK financial results
UK Press Releases
September 28, 2004
Statement in regard to The Evening Standard article, 28th September
“The reality is that the Evening Standard has not looked at a true picture of McDonald’s UK business. The article focuses on 2003 accounts for McDonald’s Restaurants Ltd, which is only one of a group of companies that are consolidated under McDonald’s Property Company Ltd - the UK’s holding company. It is the results as set out in the consolidated accounts that therefore present the complete and true picture. Equally it would be hard to attribute any effects of recent challenges to our results for 2003.
In fact the change in profits the article refers to is entirely due to a restructuring within our UK businesses. Had the Standard looked at the Operating Profit for McDonald’s Property Company Ltd it would have been clear that 2003 saw a change of just over £5.0 million – rather than £61m. Profit before tax is in line with prior year at £118.0 million. In this respect the results are in line with expectations.
It has certainly been a challenging couple of years for McDonald’s in the UK as the business has dealt with an explosion in competition and other issues, but in the last nine months the UK business has begun to follow the turn around pattern that we’ve seen in places such as the US and Australia. In 2004 we are seeing positive sales momentum in our UK business and put this down to the increased choice on our menu, changes to popular menu items such as Chicken McNuggets, the investment we’re making in restaurant refurbishments and the introduction of services such as WiFi internet access.”
McDonald’s Press Office UK
020 8700 7320
