Burgers, breakfasts and beyond with McDonald's SA

A post shared by McDonald's South Africa (@mcdonalds_za) on Apr 3, 2017 at 11:04pm PDT

The special was available on the morning of 4 April and offered the restaurant’s signature breakfast item, the Egg McMuffin, with a McCafe coffee for R10. Pocket-friendly and a crowd pleaser, the promotion was sold out at numerous outlets across the country before I stepped foot into the Sea Point branch at what I thought was an early 9am.

I was to meet with Greg Solomon, McDonald’s South Africa’s spirited CEO. Engineer turned self-proclaimed ‘burger guy’, he initially joined McDonald’s in 1996 as a project manager in the construction department.

Greg Solomon

Since stepping into a leadership role, Solomon has been credited with the company’s sales growth, increased guest counts, improved customer service and increased operating income year on year. He has also been instrumental in the evolution of the restaurant chain’s product offering, which has gone from burgers to breakfasts to coffees and delivery.

Big Mac for lunch, McMuffin for breakfast

While many expected McDonald’s to launch breakfast with the standard two eggs, toast and bacon substitute – they're 100% halal – the brand had other ideas. “Here comes McDonald’s with an English muffin, poached egg and a slice of smoked turkey. We weren’t sure at the time if South Africans would understand this breakfast, but that was 10 years ago and now it’s 12% of our total business,” he said.

The breakfast menu has expanded since then, now incorporating low-carb wraps, proudly South African boerewors patties and even oats. Despite the menu's popularity, Solomon says more growth would be welcomed. “We’d love even more growth, in some other countries around the world breakfast is 20% of their business.”

Transformational journey

Breakfast was just the start of the brand’s transformational journey. According to Solomon, as a restaurant chain that operates 24/7, you can’t rely purely on lunch or dinner. You need to have a diverse offering.

“We started off with breakfast 10 years ago, and then five years ago we said what about coffee?” Enter the McCafe brand and its 100% Arabica espresso-based coffees. While he admits coffee competition is rife, McDonald’s believes it’s found the ideal balance of value and quality. “You can have a real barista cappuccino for R17 at McDonald’s versus going crazy at R40 for a cappuccino elsewhere.”

The McCafe offering along with McDonald’s Delivery, which launched 18 months ago, have proved to be good moves in the cementing of McDonald’s as a contemporary South African brand.

“This is the journey of a modern, progressive burger business.”

Everyday value

McDonald’s doesn’t run promotions like National Breakfast Day often, instead choosing to concentrate on offering constant good value to the 8 million customers its branches see a month.

“We spend a lot of time talking to customers saying that at McDonald’s you can get it really good and you can get it cost-effective. For us, it’s about everyday good value, and keeping costs as low as possible without compromising on quality or taste.”

African expansion

In terms of expansion into Africa, Solomon is frank about not being overly-ambitious.

“At this point in time we have our beady eye on Africa but we’ve got our focus on South Africa. Our prime focus is the South African consumer, and we want to make sure we get that right first. In two or three years, I think we’ll grow more aggressively into the rest of the continent.”