McDonalds - Making a Meal out of the Olympics

It might seem a little odd that a global celebration of sporting excellence is sponsored, amongst others, by a fast food brand. But major events need major sponsors and McDonald’s certainly plans to make the most of its monopoly position for London 2012. There is lots of business studies material in McDonald’s announcement today, not the least an example of capacity and economies of scale - with the proposed McDonald’s outlets being built to serve customers visiting the London 2012 Olympics!

Lots of coverage about these outlets in the press today. Here is a link which explains more:

You can get more information about how McDonald’s is planning to maximise its sponsorship of the Olympics here:
http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/media_center/press_kits/london_2012_olympic_summer_games.html

The scale of the McDonalds Olympic operation is quite impressive:
- 470 staff
- Expected sales: 1.75 meals (compared with current monthly sales of around 72 million meals per month).At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, McDonalds sold 1.25 million meals
- Seating capacity of the flagship outlet (3,000 square metres in size) is 1,500 customers (ten times the size of an average McDonalds outlet in the UK
- During the Games, the outlet will be the busiest in the world for the brand (currently Pushkin Square outlet in Moscow)

The London Olympics will be the ninth consecutive games that McDonald’s has acted as the event’s official restaurant and McDonalds will be the only branded food service retailer feeding the athletes and spectators. I suspect the athletes might want a little more choice - or maybe not?

Many students and teachers looked at McDonald’s recently when they were researching CSR. The issue of Happy Meals may well have featured in lesson conversations. interestingly, for the first time, McDonald’s is planning to serve Happy Meals in the London Olympic venues which the firm states will include fruit, vegetable and dairy options.

According to their press release, McDonald’s will also feature a series of balanced eating and ‘fun play’ chef demos with Chef Dan Coudreaut, McDonald’s Executive Chef and Senior Director of Culinary Innovation, along with special guests onsite at the Games. We met Dan in a video used in our CPD conferences and revision workshops - here he is in full flow!