McDonald's will experiment with serving breakfast all day at some San Diego-area locations as Chief Executive Officer Steve Easterbrook seeks to pull the restaurant chain out of a US sales slump.
The test, slated to begin next month, will keep hash browns, Egg McMuffins and other sandwiches on the menu beyond the standard breakfast hours, Lisa McComb, a spokeswoman for the Illinois-based company, said in an e-mailed statement.
McDonald's is the fast-food breakfast leader, and the morning menu accounts for about 25 per cent of the company's business. As more Americans eat breakfast away from home, competitors such as Taco Bell and Starbucks have tried to take market share from McDonald's with expanded offerings. Breakfast foods are some of the most popular items on McDonald's menu, so the all-day test makes sense, Mark Kalinowski, an analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott, said in a research note.
"Arguably, the two most craveable items on the McDonald's menu are its french fries and breakfast items such as various McMuffin permutations and the utterly delicious McGriddles," said Kalinowski, who's based in New York. "Having those breakfast items available to sell all day would also serve as a reminder to customers (and the media and Wall Street) that McDonald's does indeed have craveable food to sell."
The shares rose 0.8 per cent to $US97.76 in early afternoon trading in New York. McDonald's climbed 3.5 per cent this year through Friday.
Customers have long called for McDonald's to serve breakfast all day, but, as Kalinowski points out, the company has said its kitchen grills aren't big enough to cook its entire menu at the same time.
McDonald's didn't specify how many restaurants would participate in the breakfast test.
"We look forward to learning from this test, and it's premature to speculate on any outcomes," McComb said.
Bloomberg