George Yang has held the master franchise since the opening of the first McDonald’s store in 1981. The grant of this new term license up to the year 2045 is testament, not only to the leadership and stewardship of both George and Kenneth for the past 44 years but also in further growing McDonald’s in the Philippines in the next 20 years.
Today, the Philippines is one of the largest and rapidly developing McDonald’s markets in the world based on the number of stores. Since opening its first restaurant in Morayta Street Manila, McDonald’s ended 2024 with a network of 792 stores nationwide.
“When I was applying as a franchisee in the late 70s, McDonald’s (Corporation) asked me how many stores I planned to open. I confidently said 10 stores. This 2025, we’ll be opening our 800th store,” said George Yang.
Commitment to Growth
Now with its New Term License secured, the Yangs looks to the future of McDonald’s in the country, envisioned to be a period of accelerated growth for the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) giant with a commitment to sustainable store scaling, generating greater economic and employment opportunities, supporting communities by championing education, and continuously improving the McDonald’s customer and employee experience.
“We take pride in the positive impact we make every time we open a McDonald’s store. With every store that we open, we are able to signal market readiness and growth in an area, provide direct employment, and contribute to nation building,” continued George.
Partnering with GADC (also known as McDonald’s Philippines) are over 100 independent business leaders who operate McDonald’s stores as sub-franchisees, enabling the company to be present in more local communities.
Today, McDonald’s Philippines store network spans all the regions in the country, with the majority of its stores located in NCR and Luzon, and close to 70% of which are free-standing with drive-thru. In 2024, McDonald’s opened 65 new stores.
“We see our growth coming from areas outside of NCR that have rapidly been developing. We’re excited to open more stores and bring McDonald’s closer to more Filipinos,” said Kenneth, adding that, “This 2025, we aim to break our record new store openings.”
Commitment to Customer Experience
The commitment to grow is underpinned by its commitment to the customer, and the customer experience.
“If you focus on the customer, you will not go wrong,” George declared.
The company has attributed its success in the industry by remaining relevant to the changing needs of the customer, from the food they enjoy to how they are ordered and served.
During its earlier years, McDonald’s Philippines’ menu consisted of global core menu items, but in 1986, George changed all of that when he introduced the Chicken McDo and McSpaghetti to cater to the unique Filipino palette. He then introduced a local burger, Burger McDo, soon after.
These local menu additions were not only received well when launched but continue to be one of the top-selling products today. More than the introduction of menu items, McDonald’s Philippines continues to improve the taste and quality of its menu offers whether through better ingredients, formulation or cooking procedures. In the past two years, McDonald’s has made big changes with their Burgers with “McDonald’s Best Burger Ever”, Chicken with its “Much Malaki, Much Juicier, Much Crispier Chicken McDo” and Coffee with its “Bolder Brew and Creamier Blend McCafe Iced Coffee.”
In 2005, McDonald’s Philippines became a 100% Filipino-owned company with George and Kenneth as its majority owners, and Alliance Global Inc. as its investment partner. This strategic move paved the way for the company to look towards a digitally-led future underpinned by the growing demand for a seamless omni-channel customer experience.
The company extended its reach by growing its delivery business through digital. McDonald’s pioneered many firsts from being the first QSR to have an online delivery channel in 2009, being the first to launch a McDelivery App in 2014, to being one of the first, and now one of the largest merchants in third party delivery aggregators (Grab and Food Panda), which started in 2018–making it more convenient to order McDonald’s, anytime, anywhere. For 2024, McDelivery contributed 19% to total sales, and continues to grow.
In 2020, recognizing the customers' increasing need for value for money offers, McDonald’s launched its McDonald’s App that provides personalized, and special deals only available in the app. As of December 2024, the McDonald’s App has gained over 12 million users.
“Investing in digital, and in the customer experience has yielded growth, and even protected the company during the most challenging times, like the pandemic in 2020. When many food businesses closed, we were able to remain open and serve our customers via Drive-Thru or Delivery,” Kenneth shared.
As the company grew its footprint online, equal commitment in elevating the customer experience in the stores was also seen with McDonald’s NXTGEN. Every McDonald’s NXTGEN store is equipped with cashless self-ordering kiosks, a split counter for ordering/payment and claiming of orders. With NXTGEN, McDonald’s has made the ordering and fulfillment for dine-in or take-out customers easier. The first McDonald’s NXTGEN store opened in 2018, McDonald’s McKinley West, and soon, all McDonald’s stores in the country will be NXTGEN.
“Our digital transformation journey has enabled us not just to scale the business and serve more customers, but it has improved how we do it. We are not stopping with these platforms and solutions, more so, continuously working on opportunities coming from evolving customer preferences and behaviors,” said Kenneth.
Commitment to Purpose
“Filipino customers today expect a lot more from brands like McDonald’s because of our size and scale. They expect us to not just do things right based on the customer experience we promised, but they expect us to do the right things,” Kenneth continues.
Making a difference to its people
When the first McDonald’s store opened, Filipinos were introduced not just to the Big Mac, Cheeseburger and World-Famous Fries, but to a new practice of directly hiring part-time employees, majority of which are working students.
McDonald’s has grown to be one of the country’s biggest youth employers. With a workforce of over 65,000 -- close to 7,000 are managers, and over 58,000 are crew members – receive all government mandated wages and benefits, plus others like free uniforms, meals, and discounts to products and services.
Specific to its crew, 70% are working students. McDonald’s tailor-fits shift schedules with class schedules, giving the flexibility to work and continue their studies at the same time.
More than job security from the non-practice of contractualization, McDonald’s also offers world-class training, and a holistic learning and development curriculum, enabling its people to upskill and become competitive in the industry both here and abroad.
According to Kenneth, “we believe in the importance of elevating the employee experience or EX, to drive a better customer experience or CX–as we say in McDonald’s, EX=CX.”
Extending its commitment to people is through the partnership programs it has with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), like the Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES). Under SPES, marginalized youth work as crew for a fixed period of time, with the government subsidizing part of their wages. Since the partnership began in 2011, McDonald’s has on boarded 13,000 SPES beneficiaries with 2,726 absorbed as permanent employees.
Making a difference in communities
With a firm commitment to responsible business growth, McDonald’s is equally committed to growing the impact it makes to the lives of Filipinos who need it the most.
In 1995, Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) opened its Philippines chapter with George as Chairman, and Kenneth as President. With a mandate to uplift the lives of Filipino children and families, RMHC has continuously expanded its programs to reach more communities in need.
Today, RMHC operates four flagship programs: Ronald McDonald Read to Learn, a beginning reading program in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd); Ronald McDonald Bahay Bulilit, a program in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) that provides safe and accessible learning spaces for preschool children; Ronald McDonald Family Room, a space for families in hospitals where they can rest as they care for their sick children; and McDonald’s Kindness Kitchen, a program that serves McDonald’s meals to communities affected by natural calamities.
RMHC Impact in Numbers
- Ronald McDonald Read to Learn - 11,610 public schools and over 13 million student beneficiaries
- Ronald McDonald Bahay Bulilit - 47 learning centers, 98,950 student beneficiaries
- Ronald McDonald Family Room - 900 families (since opening last December 2024)
- McDonald’s Kindness Kitchen Meals - 1,000,000 meals end of 2024
McDonald’s Philippines continues to boost its sustainability efforts through its core program Green and Good. The sustainability platform began in 2020 in an effort to find sustainable and alternative solutions with its core pillars of green building and utility efficient solutions, sustainable packaging, waste management and sustainable active mobility.
The first Green and Good flagship store opened in 2020 in UN Del Pilar in Manila, since then, it has opened seven flagship stores that are equipped with the full suite of Green and Good features such as solar-powered panels, energy management system, rainwater harvesting tanks among other features. Since 2023, it has been constructing and operating all its new stores with basic green solutions such as with LED lights, photo and motion sensors and solar lamp posts to name a few.
The Next 20 Years
Not resting on their laurels, George and Kenneth look towards the future of McDonald’s with optimism and gratitude.
“We are very thankful to everyone who has been part of the McDonald’s Philippines journey so far–our customers, sub-franchisees, suppliers, and people. They have brought us to where we are today, poised for accelerated growth,” said Kenneth.
“The new term license granted to us by McDonald’s Corporation is a bold statement of our collective ambition, as we remain committed to serve as a beacon of growth, opportunity, and shared moments with every Filipino family,” added George. (PR)
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