McDonald’s intensifies market presence in Cebu

After the grand opening of its Escario branch recently, McDonald’s announced that more branches are soon to be opened in Cebu.

McDonald’s operations consultant Grace Eje said in the company’s effort to strengthen its hold of the nationwide market, more branch openings will be expected this year and in the years to come.

McDonald’s will be opening a branch in Tabunok this year and about three to five stores for next year.

Eje added that as a growing market, Cebu plays a vital role in the company’s operations and opening more branches in this part of the country is their way of taking advantage of the lifestyle change of the people.

She shared that at the moment McDonald’s already has 11 branches in Cebu located in Lapu-Lapu, North Road in Mandaue, SM Cebu, Ayala Center, JY Square Mall, Sykes, and South Road in Mambaling, Jones, Fuente, Colon and Escario. She added that all these branches have their own devoted customer-base and is very much competitive to its store chain competitor.

Although their Fuente and Jones outlets are near each other, she pointed out that each has their own set of client-base and does not compete with each other. According to their surveys, the Fuente branch takes hold of the hospitals and its nearby market while Jones covers the Velez area and the whole Jones vicinity.

Among all 11 McDonald’s branches, Jones outlet generates the most revenue aside from the fact that it is primarily the first and the oldest branch in the city having been opened way back in 1992.

Meanwhile, their newest Escario branch is a company owned outlet and boasts of having the biggest drive-thru area among all McDonald’s branches in the city. It also offers a made-for-you concept food processing machine that can serve any McDonald’s treat for only about 35 to 50 seconds.

As of the meantime McDonald’s is still checking the market whether it will be profitable to open the store for 24 hours. But right now they offer 24 hours service only during the weekends as their Fuente and JY branches already operates round-the-clock.

As a drive-thru outlet, Eje stressed that their Escario outlet holds several advantages.  She said that the area has high traffic and there are banks, condominiums, offices, and schools nearby that can be catered to.

“There is a huge possibility that the drive-thru segment will work out very well because this branch has a very nice location due to the fact that it’s a high traffic area.” said Eje.

 Mc Donald’s Escario has about 80 crew members and Eje stressed that with this number, they are helping the immediate locality for job generation as they employed mostly from the vicinity. Nationwide, McDonald’s already has about 660 crew members except managers as for every outlet they employ an average of 60 crew members.

And in order for McDonald’s to stay at par with their competitor in the food chain industry Eje stressed that, “we always make sure that our customers will be delighted with the experience they have while dining in any McDonald’s store through our fast service and the freshness and quality of our products.”