McDonald’s all-day breakfast a win for egg suppliers, company

McDonald's new all-day breakfast as part of the fast-food chain’s “Real Food Revolution” has been successful for the restaurant and its egg industry partners alike, according to Lance Richards, vice president, McDonald’s Menu Innovation Team. Richards was a guest speaker at the American Egg Board meeting in Rosemont, Illinois, on November 12.
After several years of declining sales and transitioning to a new management team, McDonald’s knew it had to make changes, and Richards said two main issues were identified:
1. McDonald’s wanted the consumer to interact with the brand on its terms and not on the consumers’ terms.
2. McDonald’s was giving consumers what was easy for them versus listening to consumers’ wants.
In order to address these issues, menu changes were made to focus on core products and elevate their quality, including the introduction of clean-label artisan chicken, cage-free eggs and clean-label buttermilk crispy chicken. One other important switch has helped to turn sales around: making McDonald’s breakfast menu items available after 10:30 a.m.

How McDonald’s implemented all-day breakfast

Under its previous management, all-day breakfast was always off the table because of operational challenges in restaurant kitchens, but according to Richards, the new management team and a new focus on listening to what consumers want turned that around. Test kitchen trials at McDonald’s Innovation Center showed that although serving the full breakfast menu all day wasn’t possible, it could focus on the menu items consumers want most and put together an offering that could help reset the business and “reset how people eat breakfast in America,” he said.
For example, as part of this limited menu, McDonald’s traditional Egg McMuffin is not available to the whole country all day long. Based on consumer preference research, McDonald’s divided the country into a “muffin” market (70 percent of the U.S.) or a “biscuit” market, in which 30 percent of the country has an egg sandwich on a biscuit available to them any time.

More eggs on the menu for the future?

McDonald’s all-day breakfast menu has been successful on many fronts, according to Richards:

• Both restaurant foot traffic and revenue have increased
• Eggs are now a feature on the menu all day, for which Richards thanked the egg industry’s great partnership and support
• Media and consumer responses have been overwhelmingly positive

But, McDonald’s is not stopping there, which could have a great impact on egg producers and suppliers. Richards identified McDonald’s main priorities going forward: focusing on the food and creating greater value for consumers. He said the fast-food chain plans to prioritize internal resources with a focus on customer needs; enhance what is already being offering to attract consumers beyond the $1-2 price range; and create new platforms that give customers a reason to visit. McDonald’s will focus on strengthening its premium and core products – including egg and chicken products – while becoming less reliant on the entry-value items over time, he said.
All of this is good news for the egg industry as it opens the door to more menu innovation with the poultry protein at McDonald’s. The fast-food chain will be able to experiment in the future with developing new menu items with eggs, not just expanding breakfast offerings but creating options that incorporate eggs into lunch and dinner, as well.

McDonald’s cage-free decision is tipping point for US

It is difficult to overemphasize the significance of McDonald’s recent decision to embark on a 10-year transition to purchasing only eggs produced from cage-free hens in the U.S. and Canada. McDonald’s serves 2 billion eggs per year in the U.S., or around 6.25 eggs per person or 2.5 percent of total egg consumption. To put this in perspective, it wasn’t many years ago that McDonald’s egg use exceeded or at least equaled total cage-free egg production in the U.S.
I think McDonald’s announcement represents a tipping point for cage-free eggs in the U.S., just as Chick-fil-A’s announcement regarding sourcing only chicken meat from birds that were not treated with antibiotics was a tipping point in the broiler market. McDonald’s has been a trend setter when it comes to animal welfare, first establishing space requirements its suppliers’ hens in 2000.
McDonald’s was active in the Coalition for a Sustainable Egg Supply, which funded research comparing conventional cages, enriched colonies and aviaries for housing hens. The coalition studies were conducted by university scientists in field trials on a production farm in Iowa. The research compared the three housing systems for animal health and well-being, food safety and quality, environmental impact, worker health and safety, and food affordability.
I’ve read the coalition’s research results, and it appears to me that consumer research had more to do with McDonald’s decision than did the research conducted by the coalition. This should demonstrate to everyone involved in agriculture that being on the right side of science doesn’t matter if you lose the public relations battle.
I hope I am wrong about McDonald’s decision being a tipping point regarding cage-free egg production in the U.S. I think enriched colonies correct for the deficiencies of conventional cage housing while not incorporating the problems of cage-free operations. We will find out fairly soon whether other food service outlets are going to play follow the leader on the cage-free issue.

McDonald's to test serving breakfast all day

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  WATT Global Media

  McDonald's will test serving breakfast foods all day in the San Diego area, beginning in April.

  From WATTAgNet: 
  McDonald's plans to test an all-day breakfast at some locations in the San Diego area, starting in April.
  The company said in a statement that the test is in response to customers who have said they would like to eat breakfast foods such as eggs outside of the usual morning hours that they are served.
  The world's largest quick service restaurant chain said the test will include a partial menu and feature some of McDonald's breakfast sandwiches and hash browns. The company didn't say which sandwiches would make the cut.
  Fans of McDonald's breakfast menu have long wanted the option to get breakfast at McDonald's after 10:30 a.m. But offering both the breakfast and lunch menu had been considered logistically impossible, given the tight kitchen spaces of the restaurants.
  Jeff Stratton, head of McDonald's USA, in February said that the company was taking a look at how it could make breakfast available later in the day.
  The push to make breakfast foods available outside normal hours partly reflects how McDonald's is working to keep pace with shifting habits. In particular, executives have noted that customers increasingly want foods personalized to their tastes and schedules.
  McDonald's said it was too early to speculate on any outcomes from the test.

Chicken important for McDonald's future

Janice Fields, former president of McDonald's USA, speaks to the National Chicken Council about the importance of chicken to the future of McDonald's.

Janice Fields, former president of McDonald's USA, told the 39th annual conference of the National Chicken Council that chicken is a big part of McDonald's future, because McDonald's success is based on meeting consumers' wants, and consumers want chicken.
"Back in early '90s, we saw the shift customers were buying more chicken than beef and we knew we had to switch, but  we are a burger company," said Fields. "As a burger company, McDonald's had to find a way to get credibility in chicken."
Field's said the original McNuggets were a mixture of white and dark meat, and as such, were labeled a "mystery meat." That was impeding the company's growth into chicken, but was resolved by the movement to an all-white-meat nugget in 2003.
"Almost overnight we gained credibility in chicken with the white-meat McNugget," said Fields. "That was the pivot point for us."
From there, McDonald's expanded into more chicken offerings -- sandwiches, salads and wraps -- and today McDonald's sells more chicken than its four nearest competitors, combined, according to Fields.
Fields talked about McDonald's development process. She said it is a long, and complicated development process that takes into account the needs of employees, consumers and suppliers.
"The product has to be quick and easy, and it has to be hand-held," said Fields. "We do 66 percent of our business is drive-through, so people have to be able to eat it with one hand." In addition, any new products have to fit into the existing operations and equipment. If we want to change equipment, we have to sell that idea to our 2,400 franchisees in the U.S., so we are very careful about adding equipment. We need to use existing equipment to make something new and different."
But Fields said the biggest challenge in product development is in consumer testing.  "The product has to be scalable and accepted all across the country," said Fields. "We do national products, we invest in national advertising. Every product has to overcome geographic preference. We have too much at stake to fail with a new product."
A related video on Fields' appearance at the National Chicken Council's annual conference can be found on WATTAgNet.

Tyson, Cargill receive McDonald's USA awards

McDonald's USA has named Tyson Foods Inc. 2010 Supplier of the Year and selected Cargill for its 2010 Sustainability Award.
Supplier of the Year is awarded annually to a supplier that makes the most significant impact on McDonald's business results from the previous year. Tyson has been a McDonald's supplier for nearly 30 years. "Tyson Foods is looked upon as a trusted and strategic provider by the McDonald's brand and our franchisee community," said Senior Vice President of McDonald's North American supply chain Dan Gorsky. "They stand as the epitome of all the qualities we look for in our best suppliers, from leadership, partnership and teamwork to quality and innovation."
The Sustainability Award was established three years ago to recognize the importance of sustainability as an area of growing importance to the business. "Cargill has demonstrated a proactive, systematic approach to understanding and seeking solutions to address how our supply chain affects, and is affected by, the world around us," said Susan Forsell, McDonald's vice president of quality systems.
Tyson's award was presented at the recent U.S. supplier summit.

Officials reject PETA protest in Colorado

The intent of PETA to erect a five-foot high fiberglass chicken with the inscription “McCruelty, I’m Hating It” directed against the McDonald’s Corporation was denied by Denver, Colo., authorities.
They ruled that the plastic sculpture was in fact a commercial sign and as such could not be placed in a public place.
PETA will continue pressing for its sculpture to be placed near a McDonald’s restaurant claiming that it is a piece of art and therefore in compliance with the city code.

McDonald’s rejects cage-free demand

McDonald’s Inc. Board of Directors wants its shareholders to vote against a proposal by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) that would require the company buy 5% of its eggs from non-confined hens. The company cited insufficient scientific evidence to support the request.
McDonald’s Inc. joined the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply which is conducting a commercial-scale study on egg production. Researchers at Michigan State University and the University of California, Davis will evaluate conventional cages, enriched cages aviaries and other floor systems.
Some fast food restaurant chains including Burger King, Subway and Wendy’s have sourced a small amount of eggs from non-confined hens.