British chief puts McSales on the menu

Easterbrook cooks up a storm at McDonald’s

HE IS the first Brit to run McDonald’s, and just eight months since becoming chief executive Steve Easterbrook served up a surprise – a portion of super-sized sales with the third-quarter results.

The Durham University graduate wowed Wall Street by breaking a two-year spell of falling sales with unexpected growth.

The burger boss has come a long way since his childhood trips to the fast-food chain. As an 11-year-old he took the train to Harrow to buy Big Macs as a special treat. Now, 37 years later, Easterbrook is the man from Watford who went to America with a mission to turn around the world’s biggest restaurant chain.

And almost a year into his role at one of the world’s most recognised brands, initial signs are encouraging. Recent third- quarter sales ticked up 0.9pc for its troubled American outlets, sending McDonald’s shares to their highest level ever seen. The stock rose 8pc to $110.87 on the day of the update.

The secret to this early success is a raft of simple changes.

Easterbrook introduced all- day breakfasts to restaurants in America, reversing a rule restricting the sale of its Egg McMuffins after 11am. A decision to swap butter for margarine on its Egg McMuffins helped boost sales, as did a new Premium Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Deluxe sandwich. The service was improved and menus simplified.

Easterbrook ( picturedbelow) said: ‘The progress we have made in a short amount of time gives me confidence we’re making the right moves to turn around our business and reposition McDonald’s as a modern, progressive burger company.’ He has taken the helm at a troubled time for the firm, which has seen fierce competition from rival firms deemed to produce fresher and healthier burgers. He was drafted in to mirror the turnaround he staged when running the European business.

Born in August 1967, Easterbrook attended Watford Boys Grammar School and then read Natural Sciences at Durham University. The father of three girls qualified as an accountant with PwC.

Previously he said he made ‘ the seemingly illogical move’ in 1998 from a good finance role to becoming a McDonald’s restaurant manager. ‘A move which opened up more opportunities for me than I ever would have imagined,’ he said.

By 1993 he was working in McDonald’s UK finance department.

Five years on he began running groups of restaurants and spent 18 months training in Chicago at McDonald’s Hamburger University. He returned to the UK and took a number of management roles, becoming chief executive of the UK business in 2006.

Within months Easterbrook was given responsibility for other northern countries.

He cites Warren Buffett as the person he most admires in business. ‘I’ve never met him,’ he has said, ‘but I love the simplicity with which Warren Buffett describes good and bad businesses and how he makes his investment decisions.’

In 2010 he became president of McDonald’s Europe but left the following year after it reneged on an agreement that would have seen him take a more global role. At this point he took a sprint down the High Street to sample some rival restaurant chains. He joined Pizza Express as chief executive and then moved to Wagamama in 2012 before being rehired by McDonald’s in 2013 and moving to Chicago to take up that original global brand role.

In January he was named chief executive and president after Don Thompson stepped down following a disappointing spate of sales. Easterbrook will receive a base salary of $1.1m and could earn an annual bonus of 160pc of that amount.

He said the business grew rapidly in the 2000s and then things started to slow down, plateau and decline.

‘If the pace of change outside is moving more quickly than the pace of change inside you get a bit left behind,’ he said.

‘That’s the situation we have got to face up to and acknowledge. It is incumbent on us to add some pace and energy to the business.’

He said he was excited to be back. ‘ When an opportunity comes like that you have just got to grasp it. To get a shot to be part of the team to get the business on track and deliver meaningful growth for the next generation is a once in a lifetime shot.’

If the early success is sustained, Easterbrook will not just be delivering Happy Meals but some very happy investors.