Our latest CEO update

The last time that I wrote to you was shortly after the UK Prime Minister announced the second national lockdown in England. Since then, we continue to see variances in social and business restrictions across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, which I know we are all adjusting to.

Against this backdrop of restrictions and uncertainty, we felt it important to still embrace the magic of Christmas and will premiere our new TV advertisement in the launch show of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here tomorrow evening.

Providing a much-needed lift this year felt incredibly important, and the feedback we’ve received from you across social media since the advertisement’s reveal has been fantastic. Whilst we continue to work through local and national lockdowns, we know that those moments shared with loved ones take on even greater importance and this Christmas it feels more important than ever to take that time to recognise that in our advertising.

But we know so many families have been adversely impacted by the pandemic and, together with our franchisees, we are committed to doing our bit to support those in greatest need. I am particularly proud that we have extended our partnership with food charity FareShare to fund the redistribution of over five million meals to families by Easter 2021. Our funding covers the costs for the transport and logistics involved in getting food to those vulnerable families as quickly and safely as possible. In addition to our funding, popstar Becky Hill has released the beautiful rendition of Forever Young you can hear on our advertisement and will be donating at least 10p from every download to FareShare. I want to thank Becky for her support of this campaign.

Our Festive Menu launches next week. This year we have put together a menu comprised of twists on our best-loved menu items which can be safely prepared in our kitchens by smaller, socially distanced teams. We are continuing to test new menu items carefully before introducing them, seeking feedback from customers and employees before anything is added to the menu. On Wednesday we will introduce a new twist on the iconic Big Mac^® – the Double Big Mac^®, take inspiration from our best-selling chicken promotional burger with the Jerk Chicken Sandwich, and it would not be Christmas without our new Celebrations McFlurry^®.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new additions.

Our restaurants remain busy and always get busier at this time of year. The government restrictions to our services, social distancing and safety procedures we’ve introduced will mean you may have to wait a little longer for your meal. I thank you for your patience as we continue to prioritise the safety of our people and customers.

This week is the 46th anniversary of our first restaurant opening in the UK. From one restaurant in Woolwich to over 1,350 restaurants today, one thing has stayed the same – it is our people that make McDonald’s. From our brilliant restaurant employees to our fantastic farmers, suppliers and franchisees, I am immensely proud of how every element of the business has enabled us to continue safely serving your favourite menu items.

I hope you all enjoy our Christmas campaign and Festive Menu. I thank you all for the continued support of our restaurant teams in these challenging times and hope you all have a wonderful week ahead.

Kind regards,

Paul Pomroy
Chief Executive Officer, McDonald’s UK and Ireland