- CHICAGO (Reuters) - Fast-food
giant McDonald's Corp. said on Friday it would close about 175 restaurants,
slash up to 600 corporate jobs and pull out of three countries in the Middle
East and Latin America as it struggles to turn around its U.S. performance
and trim worldwide costs.
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- The actions, which will cause McDonald's to miss its
2002 earnings forecast, mark the second major round of store closings in
two years. The company will also stop owning real estate in four other
countries.
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- The overhaul is the latest attempt by McDonald's Chief
Executive Jack Greenberg, who has been at the helm for four years, to take
costs out of an operation that has struggled with weak U.S. sales, troubled
world economies and the impact of mad cow disease outbreaks in Europe and
Japan.
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- Wall Street questioned whether the actions, coming on
the heels of seven earnings shortfalls in the last eight quarters, go far
enough.
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- "Clearly they should have done this sooner, but
it's better late than never," said Victory Capital Management analyst
David Kolpak, whose firm held 3.6 million McDonald's shares through June.
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- "Investors have been saying for some time that some
of the developing market businesses need to be trimmed back, that McDonald's
... on the basis of over-optimistic forecasts, invested too quickly in
some Latin American and Middle Eastern markets, ahead of those economies'
ability to support demand," he said.
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- Shares of the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company fell
as much as 13 percent on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, more than
any other component of the Dow Jones industrial average. Stock in rivals
hamburger maker Wendy's International Inc. and Taco Bell parent Yum! Brands
Inc. also declined.
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- The maker of Quarter Pounder and Big Mac hamburgers said
the actions would reduce fourth-quarter pretax earnings by $350 million
to $425 million, with the shortfall stemming from the combined effect of
closing stores and losing their revenues, a spokeswoman said.
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- McDonald's did not name the countries it planned to exit.
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- RETRENCHMENT
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- McDonald's, which has driven growth through rapid expansion,
has boosted its store count by some 30 percent in the past five years to
about 30,000 restaurants.
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- Last year, however, it closed 163 underperforming stores.
In 2003, it plans to open about 600 hamburger outlets worldwide, down from
a high of 2,000 in 1996 and a planned 1,300 this year.
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- The worldwide job cuts of 400 to 600 positions, including
up to 250 in the United States, mark the company's third major round of
layoffs in five years. Worldwide, McDonald's employs about 395,000 people,
including store-level jobs.
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- McDonald's shares, which have lost more than a third
of their value this year, were down $1.52 or 7.9 percent at $17.79 in late
afternoon trade Friday, up from an earlier low at $16.80. The stock had
a delayed opening due to an imbalance of orders.
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- Of late, the company has returned to price discounting
in the United States, an often-criticized strategy in its largest market.
Competition intensified after McDonald's in September introduced a menu
of $1 items, prompting a similar move from Burger King Corp., the No. 2
hamburger chain.
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- A return to the Hamburger Wars has been blamed for weakening
the value of Burger King, whose parent, British drink conglomerate Diageo
Plc, has been trying to complete its sale to a private equity group.
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- "McDonald's may become even more aggressive in throwing
its marketing muscle around in 2003 than originally planned, as it tries
to do whatever it can to reverse the negative U.S. comps (comparable store
sales)," wrote Salomon Smith Barney analyst Mark Kalinowski.
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- PRESSURE FROM INVESTORS
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- The earnings warning places additional pressure on Greenberg,
analysts said. Investors have watched in vain as McDonald's pinned its
hopes on a range of initiatives, including a new production system, management
shake-ups and marketing campaigns, such as its latest plug to link celebrities
like real estate mogul Donald Trump with its new "Dollar Menu."
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- "It seems like McDonald's needs to go out and find
someone with a fresh look at the company," said William Cottrell,
portfolio manager at the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, which
holds 2.5 million McDonald's shares. "I think their overall strategy
is wrong that a lowering in price will add to profits."
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- Greenberg warned of pending job cuts when the company
reported quarterly earnings last month, but he stuck to the company's earnings
forecast for 2002 profits of $1.43 a share, hopeful that U.S. sales would
turn around.
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- October systemwide sales at McDonald's totaled $3.5 billion,
up 3 percent before the impact of foreign currency translation. But comparable
U.S. sales were down 0.6 percent, while those in Europe were off 2.2 percent.
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- McDonald's first trimmed jobs at its headquarters operations
in 1998. Last year it shed about 700 employees at its headquarters and
in its regional offices as part of a domestic restructuring.
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- Wall Street had expected McDonald's to earn $1.40 to
$1.43 a share in 2002, with an average estimate at $1.43 a share, according
to Thomson First Call.
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