McDonald's Global Store Count Tops 40,000, With About 800 New China Stores Planned for 2022

This is an English adaptation of a FoodBud historical article originally published on March 12, 2022.

McDonald's said on March 8, amid the Russia-Ukraine turmoil, that it would temporarily close its 847 restaurants in Russia while continuing to pay more than 60,000 employees. Ronald McDonald House Charities would also continue operating.

Some 84% of McDonald's restaurants in Russia were company-operated. Closing the Russian business was expected to cost McDonald's about $50 million per month. CFO Kevin Ozan said the company expected the shutdown to be temporary.

Scale: more than 40,000 restaurants worldwide

According to McDonald's latest financial report, 2021 total revenue was $23.2 billion, up 21% year on year. Company-operated restaurant sales were $9.787 billion, up 20%, while franchised revenue was $13.09 billion, up 22%. Net income reached $7.55 billion, up 59%.

McDonald's divides its business into three models: company-operated restaurants, conventional franchising, and developmental license or affiliate markets. Japan and China are the main affiliate markets. In 2020 and 2021, McDonald's sold shares in McDonald's Japan, reducing its ownership from 49% to 35%.

Revenue by company-operated business:

• U.S. company-operated sales: $2.617 billion, up 9%.
• International company-operated sales: $6.456 billion, up 26%.
• International developmental license and affiliate revenue: $715 million, up 13%.

Revenue by franchised business:

• U.S. franchised revenue: $6.094 billion, up 16%.
• International franchised revenue: $5.638 billion, up 30%.
• International developmental license and affiliate franchised revenue: $1.353 billion, up 18%.

Looking only at franchised systemwide sales, McDonald's franchised restaurants generated $102.675 billion in 2021, up 21%. Conventional franchised restaurants contributed $75.956 billion, up 20%; developmental license restaurants contributed $15.151 billion, up 29%; and affiliate restaurants contributed $11.568 billion, up 16%.

As of December 31, 2021, McDonald's operated 40,031 restaurants across 119 countries and regions. Of these, 37,295 were franchised, representing 93% of the system. The company had about 200,000 employees worldwide.

In 2021, McDonald's opened 1,494 restaurants and closed 661. In the U.S., the total investment required to open a new McDonald's restaurant was about $4.4 million. Ozan said average annual revenue per U.S. restaurant was $3.4 million.

McDonald's expected restaurant-count growth of roughly 3.5% to 4% in 2022, including about 800 new restaurants in China.

Operating metrics operators should note

• Digital channels generated more than $18 billion in systemwide sales in 2021. In McDonald's top six markets, digital accounted for more than 25% of sales.
• In those six markets, about 75% of the population lived within 3 kilometers of a McDonald's restaurant.
• McDonald's had loyalty programs in more than 40 markets. In the U.S., after only half a year, registrations reached 30 million, with more than 21 million active members.
• Ozan said breakfast represented 25% of U.S. sales, with an even higher share of profit.
• More than 33,000 restaurants worldwide offered delivery, accounting for over 80% of the total estate.
• More than 25,000 restaurants worldwide had drive-thru lanes, including more than 13,000 in the U.S. Around 95% of U.S. restaurants had drive-thru access.

McDonald's exits two technology assets

In October 2019, McDonald's completed its acquisition of Apprente, a voice-technology startup, to help automate drive-thru ordering.

Apprente was founded in Silicon Valley in 2017 and developed voice agents capable of taking orders across multiple languages and accents. Its AI was designed to understand drive-thru orders and reduce service time in the noisy, constrained environment of quick-service restaurants.

After the acquisition, Apprente employees became founding members of McD Tech Labs, which sat under McDonald's global technology team.

In October 2021, IBM announced a partnership with McDonald's to continue developing automated order-taking systems and acquired McD Tech Labs. In December 2021, McDonald's completed the divestiture of Apprente, then operating as McD Tech Labs.

McDonald's also disclosed in 2021 that it would sell Dynamic Yield to Mastercard. McDonald's had acquired Dynamic Yield in April 2019 for more than $300 million.

Founded in 2011, Dynamic Yield focused on personalization and decision logic technology. It was initially used mainly in McDonald's U.S. drive-thru restaurants to personalize service, such as changing menu displays based on weather and current restaurant traffic. By the time of the article, McDonald's had embedded Dynamic Yield technology into drive-thru and self-ordering systems across multiple markets.

Note: 2022 expansion expectations and related forward-looking figures are historical as of the article's March 12, 2022 publication date.