Kenneth (left) and George Yang
A keen sense of innovation, high employee standards, and a customer-first mindset.
These are just some of the key factors responsible for the continuing growth of Golden Arches Development Corp. (GADC), master franchise holder of McDonald’s in the Philippines, under the leadership of its founding chair George T. Yang.
“We are bullish. Seems to me the consumer market is getting stronger in the Philippines, and we are optimistic for 2017,” said Yang.
Speaking recently to reporters at the company’s first standalone McCafe in the Maybank Performing Arts Theater in Taguig City, Yang also noted that 2016 was a particularly strong year for the company after they were able to generate P38 billion in revenue, equivalent to a 14-percent growth from the previous year.
The company expects to mirror such double-digit growth this year, added Yang’s son Kenneth, McDonald’s Philippines president and CEO. The company also opened 45 new stores last year, including its 500th branch on Tagaytay-Calamba Road last December.
“Our performance in 2016 showed that we ensured our fundamentals are strong, and we made the right innovation and expansion decisions,” said the younger Yang. “This year, we aim to sustain that momentum as we continue to listen and respond to our customers’ preferences and be present in more areas nationwide.”
One such innovation—aside from new dishes being introduced regularly, dessert kiosks, McDelivery and the company’s own call center—is the McCafe at the Maybank Performing Arts Theater, although the elder Yang admits the standalone store is still “an experiment.”
“This is still a learning curve for us; we’re not yet offering it for franchise,” he said.
For now, the company is still focused on expanding McDonald’s in other areas of the country, said Kenneth.
Currently, 80 percent of McDonald’s stores are located in Luzon and Metro Manila, giving the company much room to grow their presence in Visayas and Mindanao.
Last month, the company opened a new branch in Dumaguete, and is looking forward to putting up another one in Antique, said Margot Torres, senior vice president for marketing.
With their expansion, McDonald’s Philippines also continues to improve the training and development of their personnel.
“I’m proud to say I’ve lived long enough to see what was an ordinary employee working in a restaurant before we came [into the restaurant industry], and the kind of people we had after,” said Yang, who was the first manager of the first McDonald’s on Morayta in Manila. “I’m proud to say that we raised the standards of employees, especially for students. I think that was one thing we did for the country.”
McDonald’s Philippines also has a longstanding partnership with the Department of Labor and Employment through the agency’s Special Program for the Employment of Students (SPES), which provides employment opportunities to students and out-of-school youth.