Global Weekly News Wrap: Wage hike pressure squeezes McDonald’s profits; Just Eat trials delivery drones; Chains embrace big data to predict profitability
Here is a summary of the most interesting QSR news stories of the week from around the world.
- The Financial Times reveals that companies ranging from Walmart and McDonald’s to Costco and TJ Maxx have felt sufficient pressure to increase their entry-level wages voluntarily. READ MORE HERE.
- One of Europe’s biggest food-delivery apps, Just Eat, will start testing autonomously-driven robots to bring orders to customer doorsteps in the next few months, part of an exclusive partnership that makes it the first such delivery take-out app to do so, reveals Forbes. READ MORE HERE.
- Eater shares there's actually an extensive decision-making process behind even some of the most mundane-seeming aspects of a fast food company's business—especially if it involves technology in any way. READ MORE HERE.
- A top Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. marketing executive might have been driven to drugs as the fast-food chain’s brand was tarnished by health scares at the burrito restaurants, according to Bloomberg. READ MORE HERE.
- Bloomberg reports that McDonald’s Corp. selected bidders including China Cinda Asset Management Co., the nation’s second-biggest bad-loan manager, and dairy producer Beijing Sanyuan Foods Co. to make binding offers for its operations in China and Hong Kong, people with knowledge of the matter said. READ MORE HERE.
- DC Comics, in partnership with KFC, recently released a comic called The Crisis of Infinite Colonels wherein the Col. Sanders we know must defeat the evil Col. Sunder from Earth-3, according to The Verge. READ MORE HERE.
- Chipotle Mexican Grill emerged from the shadow of a string of high-profile foodborne illness outbreaks on Wednesday with a brand new advertisement that took aim at rival fast food chains, reveals CNBC. READ MORE HERE.
- According to the Wall Street Journal, McDonald’s Corp. said Wednesday it would add more sandwiches to its all-day breakfast menu, nearly a year after introducing its biggest menu change in years. READ MORE HERE.