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McDonald’s aiming to expand footprint in Asia

The fast food burger leader is planning to launch over an additional 1,000 locations in the next five years in Asia.

March 31, 2016

McDonald’s is hoping the Asia market is as hungry for its Big Mac as it is to expand its global presence.

The company is planning to develop more than 1,500 restaurants in Korea, China and Hong Kong over the next five years, according to an announcement. At present there are more than 2,800 restaurant locations in the markets, which McDoandls's describes as high-growth, with the majority currently company-owned,

With the next expansion effort it's looking for partners to make it happen.

"Asia represents a significant area of opportunity for McDonald'’s to blend our global quality standards with local insights and expertise from partners who share our vision and values," said Steve Easterbrook, McDonald’s president and CEO.

"This will allow McDonald's to accelerate our growth and scale faster across diverse markets placing us closer to our customers and the communities we serve. We're in the midst of transforming our business and taking a strategic and thoughtful approach to enhance our ability to grow around the world. These actions build on our turnaround efforts and will advance local ownership, enable faster decision-making and achieve restaurant growth."

The news comes on the heels of McDonald's announcement to develop more restaurants in Japan and Taiwan.

"Last year, McDonald's committed to strategically evaluate ownership structures in markets around the world with the overall goal of reducing the number of restaurants that the company owns and operates. The result of this will be to place more restaurants under local ownership, in the hands of local franchisees, with a long-term goal of being 95 percent franchised. The identification of strategic partners in Asia is consistent with this strategy," states the announcement.