McDonald’s sales take hit in January as Asian demand weakens

New York, NY, United States (4E) – McDonald’s Corp. reported Friday an increase with its U.S. same-store sales in January, although demand in Asia and Europe declined.

The world’s largest restaurant chain said same-store sales fell 1.9 percent last month amid sluggish consumer spending in the Asia Pacific region while sales in the U.S. recorded a slight increase.

The Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said in its January statement that U.S. sales rose by 0.9 per cent, but sales in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa markets saw a 9.5 per cent decline.

Consensus Metrix said that analysts estimated a 1.1 percent fall in global sales at restaurants that are business for at least 13 months.

McDonald’s has recently made changes to increase sales in its U.S. market. It returned to its “Dollar Menu” advertising and decided to offer its annual limited-time McRib in December. It also made its restaurants open to customers on Christmas Day.

Its recovery in the U.S., however, was offset by the drop of customer traffic in Europe and Japan, resulting to almost flat global same-store sales in the final three months of 2012. McDonald’s blamed the controversy over chicken supplies in Japan and China for the dampened appetite of consumers in those major markets.

Japan, which has the most McDonald’s restaurants in Asia with 3,200 stores, recorded a 17 percent drop in same-store sales.

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