McDonald's North & East Gains From Innovation & Expansion

Rajeev Ranjan, the Managing Director of McDonald’s India North and East, reflects on the dynamic journey of steering one of India's favorite Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) brands amidst challenges and opportunities. In an exclusive interview, he delves into the brand's resilience during the uncertainties brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and outlines ambitious expansion plans for the North-East region. Ranjan also discusses key market shifts, technological advancements, and strategic innovations driving McDonald's growth trajectory in new markets.

You have been leading India's favorite QSR brand. How has the journey been so far?
The journey of leading McDonald’s India North and East has been fairly challenging and incredibly exciting. It's been challenging due to the immense uncertainties that COVID brought into our business suddenly. However, it's also been exciting because the situation demanded riskier, bolder decision-making than ever before, with skeletal information, frequent resource allocation and re-allocation, and swift agile execution in a severely constrained external environment. The immense learnings gathered during this journey of bringing back the business to better than the pre-COVID era in a short span of time have been humbling, gratifying, and energizing.

 Anticipating and adapting to the evolving needs of our esteemed customers has been the forte of the team at McDonald’s India North and East. The unwavering support and trust of our customers, supply partners, and passionate contribution of team members have played a pivotal role in making this journey an enriching and unforgettable experience.

Please take us through your expansion plans in the North-East.

We are expanding rapidly. We added 20% new restaurants last year and have plans to add 25% new restaurants this year, further accelerating this pace in the coming years.

We are focused on enhancing accessibility and offering convenience to our customers by opening the doors of our restaurants at multiple new locations in all the key cities and towns. Our aim is to bring the McDonald's experience closer to more and more communities in the region. We are also modernizing our existing restaurants rapidly. 61% of our existing restaurants have been upgraded to offer the experience of the future, empowering customers with Self Ordering Kiosks, tech-enabled table service, digital menu boards, and contemporary comfortable ambiance. We plan to modernize all of our restaurants in the next 2 years.

What are the key market shifts that you are seeing?
The shifting landscape of social, economic, and lifestyle factors is influencing changes in consumer preferences. Sustained inflation and reduced disposable income have prompted consumers to opt for more affordable value options, resulting in a trend of trading down within the segment. Millennials and Gen Z consumers exhibit a preference for purpose-led brands that prioritize inclusivity, community care, sustainable ingredient sourcing, and environmental responsibility. Consumers are seeking food and beverage options that not only deliver exceptional taste, convenience, and nutrition but also promote holistic wellness. The traditional three-meals-a-day model is giving way to smaller, more frequent mini-meals. The boundaries between eat-in and delivery, fast-casual and packaged, and vending and traditional restaurants are becoming increasingly blurred. Consumers demand a seamless integration of omnichannel experiences with technology-driven customization, convenience, and self-expression. Excitement in the market is fueled by menu innovation, ambitious upsizing, and premiumization. The convergence of real-life experiences with digital platforms, influenced by short-form video content, is shaping consumption accelerating shorter trend cycles.

How do you currently leverage technology in your operations, such as ordering systems, inventory management, or customer engagement?

Technology is like oxygen for us! We can’t thrive unless we leverage technology to its best. Its reliability and effortlessness in use by consumers are vital. To meet the aspirations of rapid growth in our business, we prioritize scalability of tech solutions when designing and selecting one. As consumer needs evolve and new ways of enhancing efficiency across the value chain change emerge, agility in technology to handle these changes efficiently and effectively is critical to its longevity. Additionally, ensuring cutting-edge protection against cybersecurity threats is essential for the resilience of our tech solutions. Technology has helped us significantly increase consumer convenience across omnichannel access points we have for our customers - be it through self-ordering kiosks, QR code-based contactless ordering, RFID-enabled table service, availing one of your favorite offers through our global McDonald’s app or ordering for delivery at a location of your choice. Our new customer-centric format, Experience of the Future (EOTF), is aimed at elevating hospitality standards through digital technology and delivering personalized experiences to our guests. Inside the kitchen, we have a technology solution that provides us with a digital stamp of execution of every process in the “Order to food served to customer” cycle. This helps us constantly improve our high standards of safety and well-being for the crew, in improving food quality, food safety, speed of service, wastage of food, water, energy and in offering compelling irresistible value to our customers. The next set of tech developments is poised to pleasantly surprise and delight our consumers by serving their unstated needs through sharp predictive analytics with responsible and intelligent use of personally identifiable information.

How do you evaluate potential partners to ensure alignment with your brand values and objectives?

The first filter we look for is that our values are aligned with those of our potential partner to avoid conflict. Next, we identify if the association has all the elements of a long-term mutually beneficial association, which is decided with due consideration. Once a partnership is established, we make conscious efforts and often go out of the way to ensure its longevity and mutual flourishing. The third filter is potential partner’s spirit of commitment and dedication to the highest levels of quality, safety, and customer focus.

What are the specific areas of innovation brand is focusing on to differentiate and drive growth in new markets.

Constant Innovation has helped us in creating sustained differentiation. We focus our Innovation efforts on three broad areas:  Innovation in “what we serve,”,  innovation in “how we serve” and  Innovation in “how we make.”

Under the category of “What we serve,” our focus on innovation is centered around localizing the menu to cater to diverse tastes- examples include McAloo Tikki, Maharaja Mac, Butter Chicken, Butter Paneer burgers. We recently introduced “wraps” and “Kebab rolls” inspired by the rich culinary heritage of our country, aiming to delight our patrons with flavorful choices. Our foray into the café space with McCafe branded coffee, shakes, frappes, and seasonal coolers represents our expansion in the beverage sector. Additionally, we cater to specific dietary preferences with offerings such as purely vegetarian restaurants, menus without onion and garlic at religious venues and on special occasions.

 Under “How we serve” : We are transforming our restaurant experience with our Experience of the Future design, featuring SOKs, dynamic digital menu boards, table service and guest experience leader to make the entire restaurant experience hassle-free for our customers. We also offer options of Outdoor Digital Menu Board, and voice-based ordering where a customer can speak microphone with the help of customer order display.

“How we produce”: We have an extremely efficient supply chain. Our trusted partners (who are one of three legs of stool) share our deep commitment to food quality and safety and have state-of-the-art manufacturing and storage facilities to ensure best-in-class production, storage, and distribution processes for raw materials, ingredients, and finished food products.

Through this approach, we ensure that only the highest quality food items reach our customers’ plate. We have integrated science-based food safety protocols into every aspect of operations – from ingredient sourcing to packaging, menu development, logistics, distribution, and daily functioning of our restaurants.