McDonald's Still Hungry for U.K. Growth

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He gave up playing cricket three years ago and says the strongest team he ever played in was at Durham University, where Nasser Hussain, the former leader of England, was the captain.

Mr Easterbrook is also keen to recognise the contribution to its recent growth by staff and franchisees. Back in 2006, about 70 per cent of McDonald's restaurants were company owned with the rest being run by franchisees, but now franchisees account for 62 per cent, or 720, of its outlets. This increase has been driven by a reward programme where it sells more restaurants to its strongest-performing franchisees.

On investing in staff, McDonald's UK has also taken substantial strides to distance itself from the "McJob" jibe. For instance, it now has 6,000 UK staff enrolled on its apprenticeship in multi-skilled hospitality, which it introduced in 2009 and typically takes a year to complete.

This year, McDonald's also introduced a Btec qualification for teenagers who complete an 80-hour work experience programme.

While Mr Easterbrook says "snobbery" over such schemes is less prevalent these days, it still frustrates him. "Does it make me sad? Not really. It makes me sad there is still some intellectual snobbery out there." McDonald's has helped 2,638 employees to gain GCSE Maths or English qualifications over the past 18 months.

In fact, McDonald's has created 13,000 jobs over the past two years, taking its headcount to 80,000, and plans to add another 5,000 this year.

This is despite the challenging outlook for consumer spend. A key concern of Mr Easterbrook's is the prospect of the Government raising VAT, possibly by 2.5 per cent, in the emergency Budget on 22 June. When VAT returned to 17.5 per cent on 1 January, McDonald's UK reflected this in prices on its menu, as it did the reduction in December 2008.

"They will buy less because as a family they cannot go out and spend 2.5 per cent more than they did last year because their income is going to be squeezed in other ways. I am more confident about our ability, given the momentum we have in the business, to negotiate that stronger than the competition around us."

Certainly, McDonald's intends to turn the screws on its rivals this year with a "record capital investment." Most of this will go on stepping up its refurbishment programme that will see it complete a further 240 in 2010, following 192 last year. Despite all high-street operators being in a "market share fight," the ominous news for its rivals is that, as this week's results proved, McDonald's UK's "momentum has continued through this year," says Mr Easterbrook.

The CV: Steve Easterbrook

• Born in 1967, Mr Easterbrook attended Watford Boys Grammar School before studying natural sciences at Durham University.

• Mr Easterbrook was a keen cricketer until three years ago and describes himself as a "slow left arm bowler." He played with Nasser Hussain, the former England cricket captain, at Durham University.

• He joined McDonald's UK in 1993 after a career with the accountancy firm Price Waterhouse. His career included senior roles in finance and operations before taking the helm in 2006.

• He is married with three children, who go to McDonald's two to three times a month. "They are always surprised when they go and they don't see me there," he says.

Provided by The Independent—from London, for Independent minds

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