China News Service, Beijing, October 14th. Title: Interview with McDonald’s China CEO Zhang Jiayin: McDonald’s will maintain its restaurant expansion plan in China

  China News Agency reporter Wang Qingkai

  "McDonald's China not only has no plans to reduce stores, but will continue to expand the number of restaurants in China." McDonald's China CEO Zhang Jiayin said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency. At least 430 new restaurants will be opened and 180,000 employees will be recruited.

  The new crown pneumonia epidemic has had a serious impact on the catering industry, and many well-known fast food chains such as Yoshinoya have announced the closure of some restaurants.

McDonald's latest financial report also shows that global revenue and net profit have fallen sharply in the first half of the year.

  But data shows that the number of McDonald's Chinese restaurant customers is slowly picking up.

Zhang Jiayin believes that the reason why McDonald's China can continue to expand its stores in China and maintain its original strategic plan is mainly due to China's remarkable results in controlling the new crown pneumonia epidemic.

The epidemic has made McDonald's more confident in the Chinese market.

McDonald's is becoming more and more "Chinese"

  McDonald's is becoming more and more "China"-this is the general evaluation of McDonald's by people in the catering industry after CITIC Group entered McDonald's China.

  In 1985, after observing China's reform and opening up for many years, McDonald's finally made up his mind to "attack" this market with a population of more than 1 billion.

McDonald's told its French fries supplier Simplio that he decided to enter the Chinese market, hoping that Simplio would plant potatoes in China in advance.

  Faced with China's "virgin land", a lush but unclear prospect, Simplot has been hesitant.

Moreover, it takes several generations of cultivation to grow potatoes that meet McDonald's standards. The whole process takes four years.

  At that time, many people wondered why McDonald’s didn’t directly use Chinese potatoes, and why it’s so "rigid" and took time and effort to cultivate it.

McDonald's said that this is because they adhere to a unified global supply standard system.

With this rigorous system, more than 40,000 McDonald’s restaurants around the world sell hundreds of millions of burgers with uniform quality and taste every day.

  But also because of its adherence to this system, McDonald's lags behind KFC by three years and did not open its first restaurant in Shenzhen until 1990.

In the world, McDonald's is far ahead of KFC in terms of the number of restaurants and operating income, but the opposite is true in the Chinese market.

In the huge, diverse, complex and flexible Chinese market, McDonald's appears "unacceptable."

  McDonald's has been seeking "localization".

In 2017, the strategic cooperation between CITIC Limited, CITIC Capital and The Carlyle Investment Group and McDonald's was successfully completed, and the new company "Golden Arch" became McDonald's only franchisee in mainland China.

CITIC Group acquired a majority stake in McDonald's China.

  This is the biggest and perhaps the most critical step that McDonald's has taken on the road of localization in the 30 years of its existence in China.

  After three years in charge, the genes of CITIC Group are slowly infiltrating McDonald's China.

McDonald's has launched more "down-to-earth" activities to help young people find jobs, stop food waste, and expand investment in China... McDonald's always actively responds to the latest policies of the Chinese government.

  "Responding to the government's call" and "distributing worries and solving problems for the country"... Zhang Jiayin was mentioned and repeated many times in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency.

After this "epidemic", more confidence in the Chinese market

  "The speed of China's control of the epidemic and the recovery of its national economic life has attracted the attention of the world, and it has benefited enterprises. It is worth learning and learning from other countries and regions around the world." Zhang Jiayin said that McDonald's business in China is in a recovery period, and the flow of restaurants is slowly Getting warmer, getting better every day.

McDonald's vision of reaching 4,500 stores in China by 2022 has not changed. We will accelerate if we have the opportunity.

  "In the short term, the catering industry is facing great challenges; but in the long term, we are full of confidence in the Chinese market." Zhang Jiayin, who has been engaged in the management of foreign companies, said that after the epidemic, McDonald's has become more effective in the long-term growth of the Chinese economy and the market. confidence.

  Zhang Jiayin said that the epidemic is a problem of globalization, and China's consumer market will bring the world's largest contribution to growth.

"From a global perspective of McDonald's, we McDonald's China management is a very lucky group of people-because we are in China."

  The epidemic has indeed had a great impact on the catering industry, but Zhang Jiayin believes that some small catering companies may be closed, but at the same time they will develop in a positive direction, and powerful companies will do better in the market.

These companies can quickly adapt to market changes, such as the digital transformation of the market.

  McDonald's is even more "down-to-earth."

Zhang Jiayin said that in the next step, most of McDonald's new restaurants will be in third-tier cities, and McDonald's hopes to speed up the sinking speed and layout.

The general trend in China is consumption growth, and people's lives will continue to improve. The desire of "people's longing for a better life" has always been there, and China has the strength to realize this desire.

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