Where does food in McDonald’s restaurants in the UK come from?

If you took a typical British restaurant of ours, somewhere in the region of 70% of the products that we source are from local producers across the UK and Ireland. British and Irish food is a by-word for higher quality, welfare and standards. Our customers have told us that this is important to them.

Could cheaper food imports into the UK after Brexit change this?

Import legislation or commercial and financial considerations around imported product may well change with Brexit, but our customers are saying: ‘If you can source it from the UK and Ireland, then we want you to continue to do that’; and so that is the plan that we have.

How do British consumers feel about Irish beef compared with British beef?

Our customer research has shown that there is not a significant difference in terms of quality perception, animal welfare and other standards between British beef and Irish beef. That gives us further encouragement to continue growing the volumes that we get from British farmers, but also from Irish farmers.

Listen to "McDonald's on British and Irish beef" on Spreaker.

Where does McDonald’s source its beef from?

We work with a number of Irish processors that we have had a relationship with for 10, 15 or even 20 years, such as Linden Foods, Slaney Foods and Foyle Meats. We have a longstanding relationship with Dawn Meats and now, more recently, with Dunbia.

How is the McDonald’s business in the UK performing?

We have 1,260 restaurants in the UK and each day we would be serving somewhere in the region of 3.8m customers. We have celebrated 12 years of consistent like-for-like growth. That is relatively unheard of in the British and Irish food retail industry. We are anticipating that that growth could continue for the foreseeable future, so there is a great opportunity for us and our long-term partners.

Is increased popularity of meat- and dairy-free diets having an impact?

There is innovation coming through and there are new product types that we are keeping a close eye on. But the core essence of our business is built around beef and hamburgers, and it continues to grow at a significant rate. We foresee that continuing.

Chicken is a product not fully sourced locally by McDonald’s, why is that?

The vast majority of chicken on our menu is sourced from the UK and northern Europe. Customers want us to just serve white breast meat, so we don’t have an outlet for the thighs, wings or legs. We have developed a plan which will enhance the range of chicken we offer on our menu. We’re aiming that by 2020 our business with British chicken farmers will be 10 times the size it was four years ago.