Delivery design: McDonald’s to inject £250m into upgrading venues to cater for online orders
McDonald’s has announced it is pumping more than £250m into redesigning its restaurants in the UK and Ireland, to dedicate more space to online orders.
In a four-year upgrade scheme titled ‘Convenience of the Future’, the fast food titan said it will seek to provide diners with an even speedier experience.
Some 200 restaurants across the region will receive the upgrade in 2022, with 800 conversions set to take place by the end of 2026.
The upgrade programme includes redesigning McDonald’s kitchens and dining areas to further factor in digital sales channels and the company’s app.
Some 50 per cent of the company’s sales are now through online means, the firm said.
London sites – including in Bow and Peckham – have already seen upgrades, including the additions of a designated delivery courier area. This will reduce congestion in the dining area and “create a more relaxing restaurant environment for customers,” McDonald’s said.
Couriers will also receive a separate parking area and traffic routes will be modified around restaurants so Drive-Thru and Click & Collect customers can pick up orders quicker.
It comes as the industry was changing at a “relentless” pace, with the pandemic further accelerating a trend to online delivery, Gareth Pearson, McDonald’s UK&I chief operations officer, said.
He added: “Our customers rightly expect to have choice in how and where they order and collect their food, and our job is to ensure that every experience is a great one. For this to be the case, we know we also have to provide our restaurant teams and delivery partners with the best possible environment to work in.
“We strongly believe we have to continue to invest to grow, and this investment not only addresses how customers are ordering now but provides us with a platform to continue to adapt in the future, whatever that innovation looks like.”