McDonald’s Japan sees new store expansion

Bloomberg

McDonald’s Japan is adding to its restaurant count for the first time in five years, underscoring a turnaround that prompted its US parent to reverse a decision to sell a stake in the company.
McDonald’s Holdings Co. Japan plans to open more restaurants than it will close in the second half, said Chief Executive Officer Sarah Casanova, adding that she expects the trend in new stores to continue next year. That comes after the fast-food chain shuttered restaurants for years as it faced food-contamination scandals that sent sales plummeting.
“We’re seeing balanced growth,” Casanova said at the company’s Tokyo headquarters on Wednesday. “There’s more work to do and there’s so much more potential in Japan.”
The purveyor of chocolate French fries and Hawaiian Loco Moco burgers is positioning itself for growth after rebounding from a series of food scandals in 2014 and 2015. McDonald’s Japan raised its full-year profit outlook in August as it invests in remodeling restaurants and expansion.
The company said it will open 10 new stores in Japan in the final half of the year, while closing seven. The last time it had a net addition for a six-month period was in 2012, according to company data. The count for all of 2017 will show a net reduction of 10 restaurants, McDonald’s Japan said, leaving it with about 2,900 stores. Still, that’s a sharp slowdown in closings from recent years. The company shut more than 100 stores in 2015 as it dealt with food-contamination problems.