British people can't get enough of McDonald's, but what next for the fast food giant?

The boss of McDonald’s in the UK says the fast-food chain serves three million people every day and is adapting its menu to stay ahead

McDonald's is at the centre of a row over Islamic values in Pakistan after a customer complained he was told not to sit beside his wife because managers feared it would damage the restaurant's family reputation.
McDonalds is opening up to 30 new outlets a year in the UK

Dressed in a salmon-pink hairnet, a white lab coat and a pair of clogs, the boss of McDonald’s UK is poking a perfectly round ball of dough.

“It feels nice and floury, but it’s sticky on the inside. This is now ready to be toasted.” This pre-baked bun has come from a seemingly endless line of dough balls being whizzed along multiple conveyor belts.

We’re at the start of the McDonald’s bun factory line, a 10,000 square metre facility in Dunstable, near Luton, Bedfordshire. Paul Pomroy, the managing director of McDonald’s UK, is enthusiastically explaining the 1hr 40min journey of a burger bun, from mixing to packing.

More than 67,000 burger buns are made here every hour, ready to be shipped to restaurants across the UK.

As hundreds of cooked buns make their way down a spiral cooling line, it seems incredible that most of these will be consumed within the next 24 hours.

But this is McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast food chain. In the UK, there are around 1,250 restaurants, and the company is opening up to 30 new outlets a year.

Despite a proliferation of upmarket burger restaurants and trendy pop-ups, it seems British people can’t get enough of McDonald’s. Every day, three million people eat at one of its restaurants and Pomroy says that 90pc of the population has eaten a McDonald’s at some point.

Our Big Mac has been with us for 40 years and it’s still the most successful selling burger we have. I don’t see that changing in the next 40 years
Paul Pomroy

Last year, around 90m Big Macs were dished up, although this was lower than the peak of 100m in 2011, which the company claims is because of the introduction of more wraps and deli sandwiches to the menu.

“Two years ago, we didn’t sell fresh fruit smoothies or frappes. But things change and we want to keep our menu current with customers. Having said that, our Big Mac has been with us for 40 years and it’s still the most successful selling burger we have. I don’t see that changing in the next 40 years,” he adds.

In the past few years, McDonald’s has undergone something of a menu overhaul. Once, the dilemma was whether to go for a milkshake or a soft drink. Now you can order a strawberry and banana fruit smoothie with your McChicken Sandwich.

The menu is about to be transformed once again, when the chain launches a new wrap range.

Currently there is a limited selection of chicken wraps on offer, but McDonald’s wants to take further strides into the grab-and-go lunch market. In October, it will spice things up by introducing barbecue, sweet chilli, and hot Peri Peri chicken wraps.

“Lunch is definitely an area that we’ll keep exploring,” says Pomroy. “We’re looking into the portability aspect. Seventy per cent of our customers take away, eating on the go. Having a wrap is something potentially more convenient. A pork, onion and ketchup breakfast wrap will also return to the menu, following a trial run earlier this year.”

The blended ice range is a recent addition to the menu

The menu isn’t the only thing changing – McDonald’s is in the middle of a £350m store overhaul. After trialling table service at 15 restaurants, waiter service will be rolled out across the UK in October. All stores are also being fitted with “digital kiosks”, giant iPad-like devices that give customers a self-service option and means they don’t have to queue at the till.

At the same time, customisation is also being ramped up, meaning people will be able to choose which bread, cheese, toppings and sauce they want.

Just like choosing whether to add ketchup or mustard and whether to pick out the gherkin, Pomroy thinks there’s much more McDonald’s can offer.

This trend has been accelerated by new burger rivals such as Five Guys, which not only lets customers choose the toppings they want, but also adds them free of charge.

“There’s no reason why people who love spice can’t have Tabasco sauce on their chicken. It’s not just new products we’re introducing, it’s also where we can put twists on old favourites,” he says.

A customer uses a touch screen panel to order a Big Mac sandwich inside a McDonald's Corp. restaurant in Manchester, U.K

The drive-through could be next on the list for shake-up. Drive-throughs account for around 70pc of McDonald’s total sales, but the essentials have barely changed in recent years. As the firm’s menu grows, this type of service could become even more complex, potentially slowing down waiting times.

Pomroy says the company is looking into making the menu easier for customers to navigate as they sit and wait. The digital kiosks are only in stores at the moment, but this could be extended to drive-throughs so people can simply tap in their order, rather than reading off paper-based menus.

For someone who only took over as managing director seven months ago, Pomroy, 42, may come across as overly ambitious but he has been with the company for almost two decades.

Previously the company’s chief finance officer, he had already budgeted most of the upgrades with former managing director Jill McDonald, who left to run car parts and bicycles retailer Halfords this year.

The father of two is enthusiastic about McDonald’s contribution to the UK economy. All of the chain’s beef is sourced from more than 17,500 British and Irish farmers, as well as millions of litres of milk. In 2013, 5,000 hectares of UK farmland grew potatoes for its French fries and hash browns.

Paul Pomroy became the boss of McDonald's in the UK earlier this year

Emphasising its British-sourced ingredients has allowed McDonald’s to recover from a torrid period a decade ago, when sales were going backwards in the UK and its reputation had been tarnished by the Super Size Me documentary film.

This investment also paid off during the horse-meat crisis two years ago.

While supermarkets, restaurants and rival Burger King were dragged into the scandal, McDonald’s was one of the few national companies able to boast that all its beef was sourced from Britain, and it was praised in the government report into the crisis.

Pomroy says the chain talks constantly to its customers about their likes and dislikes, and says supporting British businesses is a priority. The only products McDonald’s imports from elsewhere tend to be seasonal, such as pineapple and strawberries for its smoothies, as well as coffee.

Some of its chicken is also imported from markets including Thailand and Brazil.

He adds that fat and sugar are also an increasing concern for customers, and that McDonald’s has reduced the sugar in Happy Meals by almost a third since 2000. However, he defends McDonald’s nutritional value – or lack of it - saying that for many it remains a treat and it’s up to customers to make decisions on what they choose to eat.

“There’ll be certain times when I take my son to McDonald’s for a treat, and he’ll have whatever drinks he likes. Other times it’s the bottle of water. It’s my job as a parent to make sure that’s the case and that he gets the right fluids at the right time,” he says.

On average, McDonald's sells three Big Macs a second

Since you started reading this, that is...

A challenge for McDonald’s will be counting the cost of the new national living wage, which was introduced by the Government in the Budget this summer. It means a compulsory wage of £9 an hour will be introduced for over-25s by 2020.

Pomroy says McDonald’s will be affected by the change. McDonald’s employs 100,000 people in the UK, and many are on the minimum wage of £6.50 an hour. While around 75pc of its workforce are under 25, and therefore will not be affected by the changes, he says McDonald’s puts a high focus on staff retention and hopes that many will stay on.

“We’re working through it all at the moment. There are lots of things to think about. For example, two people who are 23 and 24, doing the same job, will get a pay rise at a different time in the next three years. It’s on age not skills and we need to think about that.”

The company also employs the majority of its workers on zero-hour contracts, an employment structure that has attracted criticism as employees have no guarantee of work and are often called in at short notice.

However, Pomroy says the flexibility suits its staff’s needs and that they are happy with the arrangement.

McDonald's is to introduce a fizzy drink for children that promises one of their five-a-day portions of fruit and vegetables, it has announced.
Paul Pomroy says the company has reduced the amount ot salt and sugar in its meals in the past decade

In the UK, McDonald’s has enjoyed 37 consecutive quarters of growth. However, things aren’t going as well in its home market. Last year, sales in the US fell by 7pc and profits slumped by 15pc, as more customers switched to healthier meal alternatives.

The concern for McDonald’s is whether it can compete with newer chains such as Nando’s, which offers a wider variety of food and is becoming more and more popular. There are around 330 Nando’s in the UK, a fraction of the number of McDonald’s. However, like McDonald’s it is also adding 30 new outlets a year; and made profits of £58.2m in 2013.

Pomroy remains up for the challenge. “In the next three years, we will transform the look and feel of our restaurants again. Our shopping basket may be fairly narrow but it’s all high quality.”