McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Andrew Charles: Great, thanks. Chris, you expressed the same macro concerns in Europe as last quarter. But within IOM, strong 4Q comps, the UK, France, and Germany, you called out really standout performers. And so you spoke about a few country-specific operating highlights. But can you talk about the degree that Europe is benefiting from trade-down from higher-priced dining and how you’re positioning the business to sharpen the focus on value in 2023 while recognizing franchisee profitability in Europe is seeing the greatest challenge? And if I could just squeeze in one quick housekeeping question, how will the $100 million to $150 million of 2023 franchise release show up in the income statement and if you anticipate that to be front half or back half-weighted or spread evenly throughout the year would be helpful? Thanks.

Christopher J. Kempczinski: Why don’t I have Ian cover the housekeeping item, and then I’ll get to your broader question about Europe and the consumer.

Ian F. Borden: Yes, hi Andrew. So just on the $100 million to $150 million, that obviously is directed to support franchisees. And so it would show up through our franchisee revenue in the income statement as we work through that. I’ll give it back to Chris for the rest.

Christopher J. Kempczinski: Yes. And to the question about trade-down and the benefits of that, we’re seeing good balanced growth in Europe and in our IOM markets. So I wouldn’t say that we are disproportionately benefiting from some sort of trade-down to the degree that we have visibility kind of at the different strata of the consumer, we’re continuing to see that hold up well across sort of all consumer segments.

Mike Cieplak: I have time for one last question from John Ivankoe with J.P. Morgan.

John Ivankoe: Hi. Thank you so much for that question. The question is on CAPEX and just overall capital needs of the business. Certainly, appreciate the guide for fiscal 2023 at $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion, but that includes new units on 400 IOM in U.S. units. So I guess there’s a couple of different parts to this. Do you think — is that 400 number kind of the right number to think about in these developed markets going forward or could that number necessarily increase, I guess, the first part? Secondly, you did mention the completion of EOTF in the U.S., largely in 2022 and I’m wondering if there’s another large project, specifically, I guess, in the IOM markets, that may kind of take up for existing unit CAPEX? And finally, in the release, and I think this has been a really important thing for McDonald’s’ 90% cash conversion.

I mean I suppose you mean of earnings of your net earnings, I mean, is that the right ratio that you expect to hit on an annual basis going forward, maybe getting a little bit of a preview of what you will talk about later this year at your analyst meeting? Thanks.

Christopher J. Kempczinski: Yeah, good morning John, thanks for all that. So I think on the 400 openings, as Chris said, we’ll have more to say on that later in the year. But I think what we’ve done well over the last couple of years is really build demand for the brand by investing in the brand, I think in doing a good job to resonate with consumers. And so certainly feel there’s opportunity ahead. I think from a quantification standpoint, we’ll talk about that, as I said, more later in the year. On 2023, the $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion of CAPEX, about half of that is going to go towards new unit growth. I would say one of the things as we work through COVID and dealt with kind of consumer shifts in behavior was we certainly understood there was an opportunity for us to deal — obviously, we’ve got a lot more ordering channels coming into restaurants.

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