麦当劳全球销售额跳水，公司面临动荡

    对麦当劳（McDonald）来说，情况还在持续恶化。

    由于近一年来美国顾客对芝士汉堡和炸薯条的消费量持续降低，麦当劳在美国本土已经遭遇难题。雪上加霜的是，这家全球最大的餐饮连锁商上个月还得应对俄罗斯的餐厅关闭事件，另外亚洲的食品安全丑闻也让中国和日本的麦当劳销售额跳水。

    这一切使得麦当劳8月的全球同店销售额下跌了3.7%，华尔街还警告说，麦当劳的毛利率也将遭受重挫。根据Consensus Matrix公司的预计，麦当劳毛利率的下跌幅度将远大于3.1%，他们还表示，该公司未来的表现恐怕会时常低于分析师的预期。

    麦当劳的首席执行官唐•汤普森试图勇敢地面对当前的困难。他表示公司在全球都面临着“逆风”的局面，他们将设法“有效导航”，从而重回正轨。

    不过他面临着很大的问题。在贡献麦当劳三分之一收入的美国，过去至少13个月中保持营业的餐厅中（为了排除开业和停业造成的影响），麦当劳的同店销售额下跌了2.8%，比华尔街专家预测的2%跌幅还要多。由于日益激烈的早餐竞争，麦当劳的表现持续低迷。关注价格的顾客正在寻找更为实惠的餐厅，而麦当劳的运营混乱也让用餐者陆续离开。上个月，麦当劳终于失去了耐心，宣布将替换任职不到两年的美国和加拿大区主管。麦当劳在2013年的报告中表示，当年美国的同店销售额开始出现下降，这中断了之前连续十年的增长态势。

    在亚洲，随着7月重创麦当劳的食品安全丑闻演变成一部长剧，情况甚至变得更加糟糕。由于丑闻，麦当劳在日本的销售额猛跌25%，而中国的销售额下滑一直持续到8月。今年7月末，东方卫视爆料称，麦当劳的最大肉类供应商福喜集团（OSI Group）在中国的分公司给过期肉类重新贴标签，使用过期牛肉制作肉饼，并向麦当劳、百胜餐饮（Yum）的肯德基（KFC）和其他中国的食品连锁公司出售该类产品。福喜现已为此遭到罚款处罚。这一事件发生后，麦当劳中国区的牛肉和鸡肉短缺持续了三周。

    麦当劳表示，中国的这起事件将使公司第三季度的每股利润降低15至20美分，即降低多达1.96亿美元（麦当劳的净发股票为9.81亿），公司将努力赢回该市场的顾客的信任。

    尽管最近在俄罗斯与乌克兰冲突的大背景下，几家俄罗斯的麦当劳门店被关闭，但欧洲区的表现相对较为出色，英国人帮忙缓解了俄罗斯和其他地区给麦当劳带来的阵痛。尽管如此，麦当劳表示，欧洲区的前景依然不容乐观，“疲弱的消费者信心”将会影响包括9月在内的第三季度的销售额和利润。

    从全球范围来看，还在说“我就喜欢”的人似乎越来越少。对麦当劳而言，情况几乎还没有好转的迹象。（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    Things just keep getting worse for McDonald’s .

    On top of ongoing problems at home, where U.S. customers have been cutting back on its cheeseburgers and fries for nearly a year, the world’s largest restaurant chain last month had to contend with restaurant closings in Russia and a food safety scandal in Asia that decimated its sales in China and Japan.

    The result was a 3.7% decline in global same-restaurant sales in August, along with a warning to Wall Street that McDonald’s gross profit rate would take a hit. That was a much deeper decline than the 3.1% drop analysts were expecting, according to Consensus Matrix, and continued a trend that seen the chain frequently miss analyst projections.

    McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson tried to put a brave face on it, saying the company had faced “headwinds” around the world and was trying to “effectively navigate” them to find its footing again.

    But he has a big job ahead of him. In the U.S. which accounts for one-third of revenues, same-restaurant sales at restaurants open for at least the last 13 months (to strip out the effect of openings and closings) fell 2.8% compared to the 2% decrease Wall Street experts were anticipating. That continued a trend of poor U.S. results as intense breakfast competition, price-conscious consumers looking for cheaper menu items and operational screw-ups have kept diners away in droves. Last month, McDonald’s finally lost patience and announced it was replacing the head of its U.S. and Canada division less than two years after he was appointed. In 2013, McDonald’s reported a decline in U.S. same-store restaurant sales for the year , breaking a 10-year streak of gains.

    In Asia, things were even worse, as a food safety scandal that hit McDonald’s in July proved to be the gift that keeps on giving. Sales in Japan fell 25% last because of the scandal, and a large sales decline in China carried over into August. The Chinese subsidiary of McDonalds’s largest meat supplier, OSI Group, was recently fined forselling expired meat to McDonald’s, Yum Brands’ KFC, and other chains in the country after being caught by a Shanghai TV channel in late July re-labelling expired meat packages and using expired beef to make patties. McDonald’s was short on beef and chicken for three weeks in China following the ordeal.

    McDonald’s said the China problem would lower its third quarter profit by 15 to 20 cents per share, or as much as $196 million (based on 981 million shares outstanding), and that it is working overtime to win back the trust of customers there.

    Despite the recent closings of a few McDonald’s restaurants in Russia against the backdrop of that country’s conflict with Ukraine, Europe was a relatively bright spot, with the Brits helping mitigate some of the pain in Russia and elsewhere. Still, the company spoke ominously of “weak consumer sentiment” in Europe affecting sales and profit for the third quarter, which includes September.

    Seems worldwide, fewer and fewer people have been saying “I’m loving it,” with little relief in sight for McDonald’s.