Fast-food giant McDonald’s has announced plans to almost double its restaurant footprint in mainland China over the next five years. McDonald’s has said it aims to increase its restaurant numbers in China from 2,500 today to 4,500 by 2022, with the pace of restaurants opening set to double to 500 per year.

The US restaurant chain has said the aim of this expansion strategy is to deliver double-digit sales growth in China for each of the next five years, as new chief executive Steve Easterbrook continues to turn the company around following years of slowing sales.

Titled “Vision 2022”, McDonald’s new strategy for China, the world’s fastest-growing consumer market, will see the fast-food giant take aim at the country’s less developed cities. McDonald’s said it will be prioritising opening new stores in Tier 3 and 4 cities in China, which are typically less economically developed.

With this approach, McDonald’s says it aims to have 45% of all its Chinese restaurants located in these cities by 2022.

Interestingly, McDonald’s has singled out the increase in home delivery of food as the greatest disruption to its business model in recent years. Of all the new stores built by 2022, McDonald’s has said that 75% of these will include takeaway delivery. In 2016 alone, McDonald’s delivery business in China grew 30% with sales approaching $1bn. Easterbrook has said he expects China to soon become McDonald’s largest market outside of the US, overtaking long-established markets such as France, the UK and Germany.