McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest restaurant chain, posted a surprise gain in US same-store sales last month while demand slumped in the Asia Pacific region.
Sales in the US increased 0.9 percent in January, the Oak Brook, Ill.,-based company said yesterday in a statement. Analysts projected a drop of 0.3 percent. Sales in Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa plunged 9.5 percent; analysts anticipated a decline of 5.8 percent.
The Big Mac seller has been promoting value items and breakfast foods to lure customers in Asia as Japan works to emerge from its third recession in five years and consumer confidence stagnates in China. In the US, McDonald’s is promoting its Dollar Menu and testing new items, such as chicken wings, to boost sales.
McDonald’s rose 0.3 percent to $94.87 at the close. The shares dropped 12 percent last year, their worst annual performance in a decade. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 13 percent in 2012.
McDonald’s January same-store sales in Japan, the company’s largest Asian market, with about 3,200 locations, dropped 17 percent.
In China, McDonald’s January sales were hurt by “consumer sensitivity” around the chicken industry, according to the statement. Yum! Brands, which owns KFC, said its China same-store sales tumbled in the fourth quarter after a former poultry supplier was investigated for selling chicken with high levels of antibiotics.
In the US, fast-food eateries are vying for budget-conscious customers who are seeing smaller paychecks. “People’s paychecks have shrunk because of the payroll tax,” Bryan Elliott, an analyst at St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Raymond James Financial said. Elliott rates McDonald’s shares market perform.