McDonald’s creates new team of specialists across beef, chicken, beverages categories
CHICAGO — Looking to improve competitiveness across all foodservice categories, McDonald’s Corp. announced a new strategic organizational change. The company is creating a Restaurant Experience Team that will bring together operations, supply chain, franchising, development, design, delivery and innovation departments. With this restructuring, McDonald’s is establishing three new global category management teams focused on beef, chicken and beverages/desserts.
“This is really an evolution from our Customer Experience Team that we put in place about three years ago now,” explained Chris Kempczinski, president, chief executive officer and chairman of McDonald’s, in a video announcing the restructuring.
Due to the nature of the quick-service restaurant industry, McDonald’s is often competing against operators with expertise in a specific food category. In order to gain market share faster, the company is rethinking where its focus lies.
“The thinking behind this (move) is, in so many of our categories, we’re competing against specialists — we’re competing against somebody like a KFC, for example, who is single-mindedly devoted to winning in chicken,” Kempczinski said. “So this category team now allows us to actually have that same level of focus on do we have what we need — the winning strategies to win in chicken, to win in beverages, to continue to win in beef.”
The company’s announcement to fast-track market share aligns with its initiatives laid out in last month's earnings report. While softer, declining restaurant industry traffic in the United States and many other larger markets is expected in 2025, McDonald’s maintains a robust financial strategy, looking to accelerate its digital footprint, share across its core menu and new restaurant rate.
Personnel updates
Each of the three new global category management teams will have its own lead. Charlie Newberger was named lead of beverage/dessert category management, while the beef and chicken category leads have not been announced.
Several other appointments were announced with this organizational shift. For one, Jill McDonald, current president of International Operated Markets (IOM), was appointed to the newly created role of chief restaurant experience officer, effective May 1. McDonald will also resume the responsibility of McDonald’s Restaurant Platform lead, working closely with the technology team.
“Jill’s accomplishments with McDonald’s span a variety of roles and responsibilities,” Kempczinski said. “Her demonstrated success and focus on our key business metrics have helped unlock growth opportunities in IOM. I’m confident Jill is ready to embrace this new challenge and lead this dynamic team.”
Succeeding McDonald as president of IOM is Manu Steijaert, who most recently led McDonald’s Customer Experience Team.
McDonald’s created a second new position with its restructure — the global chief restaurant officer, who will oversee operations strategy and performance, restaurant innovation, and talent development. McDonald’s has yet to announce who will fill this role.
The following appointments were also announced: Warren Anderson as global supply chain lead; Andrew Gregory in an expanded role leading global franchising, development and delivery; and Tabassum Zalotrawala as global restaurant design lead in addition to her current responsibilities overseeing US development.