McDonald's Malaysia investing RM363m on new outlets, makeover (update)

KUALA LUMPUR: McDonald's Malaysia is investing RM363 million to add 33 new restaurants and refurbish 86 others in the country, as part of its three-year growth plan.

McDonald's Malaysia managing director and operating partner Azmir Jaafar said the company would set aside RM100 million to develop drive-thru restaurants and for the refurbishment exercise.

Speaking at a media briefing in Kulaa Lumpur on Thursday, he said that with a network of 262 restaurants and 12,000 employees serving 13.5 million customers monthly, McDonald's Malaysia is confident of strong double-digit growth this year.

"Last year was record breaking for us with an all-time high year-on-year revenue growth of 16%," he added.

He said McDonald's Malaysia was also looking to plough an investment of RM1.4 billion to develop 450 restaurants, and create 10,000 new jobs over the next eight years.

McDonald's Malaysia has at present 82 delivering hubs, 113 McCafe's, 151 drive thru restaurants and 200 24-hour restaurants nationwide.

Azmir said McDonald's Malaysia was continuing its growth trajectory under the new Developmental Licensee (DL) ownership.

McDonald's Corp announced in late 2016 it had selected Lionhorn Pte Ltd as the DL for its Malaysia and Singapore markets.

Lionhorn is led by Sheik Fahd and Abdulrahman Alireza, who bring 20 years of experience as the DL for the nearly 100 McDonald's restaurants in the Western and Southern regions of Saudi Arabia.

Azmir said under the DL structure, Lionhorn will provide the capital necessary to support and grow the business, while day-to-day management of the Malaysian market would continue to be led by local leadership with the knowledge and insight required to driving business success in the country.

Azmir said the Lionhorn Group partnership comes at just the right time to help take McDonald's in Malaysia to its next lap of growth.

It is reported that as part of McDonald's Corp turnaround plan announced in May 2015, it was committed to refranchising 4,000 restaurants by end-2018 with the long-term goal of becoming 95% franchised.

McDonald's has now refranchised about 1,300 restaurants. - Bernama