Becca Hary, a spokeswoman for McDonald’s, said in a statement, “We are conducting a limited test in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and look forward to gaining valuable feedback from our customers and crew. We are continuing to raise the bar for our customers with new menu items and ways to experience our brand.”
In 2017, the company set a deadline of the second quarter of 2018 to transition to fresh, not frozen beef patties to make its Quarter Pounders, Quarter Pounders with Cheese, Double Quarter Pounders with Cheese, Quarter Pounders with Cheese Deluxe and Signature Crafted Recipe burgers.
The Archburger test may be a sign that McDonald’s might expand use of fresh versus frozen beef patties in the quick-service chain’s other burgers. During a conference call with analysts to discuss the company’s Q2 results on July 25, 2017, President and CEO Stephen Easterbrook and CFO Kevin Ozan noted that adjustments to the company’s fresh-beef supply chain system would impact in-store operations and labor costs.
At the time, Ozan noted that margins at company-operated restaurants declined 30 basis points as positive comparable sales were offset by higher wages and “purposeful investments that we’ve made to ensure that we execute at a high level and provide a great experience for our customers as we deploy mobile order and pay, accelerate the rollout of Experience of the Future and ready the system for the introduction of fresh quarter-pound beef patties next year.”
