Dive Brief:
- McDonald’s is updating its franchising standards related to value perception, the chain confirmed Monday in an email to Restaurant Dive. Andrew Gregory, McDonald’s SVP of global franchising, said in a memo originally reported on by CNBC that enhancing the brand’s standards would create greater clarity across its system, ensuring each restaurant provides “consistent, reliable value across the full customer experience.”
- Starting Jan. 1, 2026, Gregory said McDonald’s will “holistically assess” pricing decisions to determine how well operators offer value, CNBC reported. This move will also allow franchisees to provide McDonald’s with more local insight into the value delivered within their individual restaurants.
- The chain has been updating its value strategy since last year, when it began offering a $5 Meal Deal and Buy One, Get One offers. The chain’s updated value strategy led to the launch of the McValue menu early this year and the September rollout of Extra Value Meals.
Dive Insight:
Last year, CEO Chris Kempczinski said that value was largely left to individual franchisees and often varied market to market. New standards will help shift the chain toward a national value platform. The company also will offer additional tools like approved pricing consultants to assist franchisees, according to CNBC.
During a November earnings call, Kempczinski said its U.S. franchisees saw an opportunity to improve its value perception. Its Extra Value Meals were “out of whack” and dragging on the chain’s value perception, for example. A majority of its franchisees agreed that the Extra Value Meal needed to be fixed; and the chain has cut prices on the EVMs.
“What we expect is going to happen is that by the end of Q1, our system is going to be in position here where it's actually going to be a better decision to continue with the EVMs than it is to go back to where we were and create the problem all over again,” he said.
Value is having a significant impact on the company’s results. During the third quarter, Extra Value Meals accounted for about one-third of all U.S. transactions, in line with expectations, CFO Ian Borden said during the call. The McValue platform, which the company enhanced in July with the Daily Double, continues to provide positive results, Borden said.
