Serving breakfast all day turned out to be a multi-million dollar idea for McDonald’s.
The fast food giant on Friday (April 22) reported its third straight quarter of sales growth at US restaurants that have been open at least 13 months, fueled in large part by the popularity of all-day breakfast, which began late last year. In the first quarter of 2016, McDonald’s netted $1.1 billion in profits, up from $811.5 million, according to a company statement.
US store sales grew 5.4% compared to the prior year, virtually conclusive proof that CEO Steve Easterbrook’s breakfast expansion was just what the company needed to jumpstart the business after three years of dismal growth.
“It exceeded our expectations for the launch phase…and frankly, it’s still exceeding our expectations,” Easterbrook said during a call with investors. “We’re in that nice situation now where we’re challenging ourselves about how much more can we actually do.”
To be sure, McDonald’s had floated the idea of all-day breakfast for years, but it said it didn’t have the kitchen space to pull it off.
Easterbrook’s success was punctuated just days before the earnings announcement, when documents filed by McDonald’s to the Securities and Exchange Commission showed the CEO was getting a 368% increase in total compensation (including an 18% salary boost) to $7.91 million.
With that kind of compensation, Easterbrook could buy more than 2 million Egg McMuffins.