Bidness ETC - Franchisees of McDonald's Not Happy With the Company's Management

The fast food chain's management has yet again left a question mark for the analysts to think about as the franchise owners come up with issues of their own.

McDonald’s news is yet again circulating in the market regarding the fact that now the franchise owners of the fast food company are beginning to have issues with the management, which means that the customers are not the only ones now. The company owns only 10% of the franchises itself while the other 90% are owned by others. The fast food chain has been under a lot of speculation by the employees who carried out a protest rally against the wage plan that was followed by it, as they demanded an increase. This protest was joined in by employees of all the franchises of the firm all around the country.

However, in a recent research done by Janney Capital Markets, it was seen becoming evident that the owners of the franchises located all around the United States seemed to have many issues with the management of McDonald’s Corporation. The survey showed that the people felt that the company is reaching its lowest points in the market that it never touched ever before in the 11 years of foundation. The company received a 1.81 rating from the average people who filled the survey which was taken by the analysts in a very negative way as it showed that the business made by the food chain’s franchisees was more on the poor side than on the average side.

McDonald’s, on the other hand, dismissed these results saying that the sample size used by the survey takers was not enough to actually analyze the business activities of the company. The fast food service firm also explained that around 3,100 franchises are owned by the company and to conduct the survey, only 1% of that was taken into consideration which makes the results quite useless to be considered. The management even said that they have a good relationship with their franchisees and the rumors that declared the opposite were not true.

However, the fact that McDonald’s stock reported low quarterly earnings for the 8th time in January showed that the company is indeed in a difficult financial state, something that cannot be ignored. Even though the firm has been taking massive steps to overcome this struggling time with the retirement of the old CEO and appointment of a new one and with making prominent changes in the menu, no eminent difference has yet been seen in the sales.

The competition that McDonald’s has been facing by Chipotle and Taco Bell has ended up being a tough call for the food chain that was once the most loved fast food restaurant of the customers.