McDonald's announced it would be closing roughly 200 locations in the U.S. this year, accelerating closures that it had already had planned.
During its second-quarter earnings call, CFO Kevin Ozan confirmed the company would be closing lower-volume locations, more than half of which are McDonald's restaurants inside of Walmart stores, according to Restaurant Business Online.
“The U.S. is accelerating some restaurant closures previously planned for future years,” he said, according to the publication: “Of the 200 U.S. closures for this year, over half are low-volume restaurants in Walmart store locations.”
RBO reported that the restaurant has been closing locations inside of Walmarts in recent years after opening a surge of them in the '90s. McDonald's overall U.S. restaurant count has fallen each year since a peak in 2014. However, they are forecasting 350 net new locations this year, according to CNBC.
The news of the closures comes as McDonald's had its lowest quarterly profit in 13 years in the quarter that ended last month, according to The Financial Times. Revenues fell by 30 percent, while global same-store sales dropped by 23.9 percent, according to CNBC. Though fast food chains seem to be bouncing back slightly better than other restaurants, the chain is just one of many seeing closures amid the COVID-19 pandemic. CEO Chris Kempczinski acknowledged that the pandemic seems to be spiking in many places, but said that the chain is adjusting.
“In many markets around the world, most of notably in the U.S., the public health situation appears to be worsening,” he said. “Nonetheless, I believe that Q2 represents the trough in our performance as McDonald’s has learned to adjust our operations to this new environment.”
