FILIPINO quick-service restaurant customers can expect more McDonald’s concept stores featuring self-ordering kiosks and cashless transactions by the end of 2019, the American fast-food chain giant’s master franchise holder in the Philippines has said.
“At the moment, we probably have a hundred NxtGen stores already all over the Philippines, from La Union to Davao. So we will continue with the expansion of our NxtGen [outlets],” McDonald’s Philippines Managing Director Margot B. Torres told reporters in mixed English and Filipino after the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the City Government of Manila and Golden Arches Development Corp. (McDonald’s Philippines) on Wednesday at Manila City Hall.
According to her, exactly 101 of the company’s 640 branches nationwide are now converted to the so-called NxtGen stores.
“Our customers are really happy with the self-order kiosks because they have control on their orders. So they need not queue,” the top executive said. “Also included is the option to use cashless. These cashless payments are already available in 185 of our stores.”
McDonald’s Philippines aims to turn this year around 10 percent of its store base into NxtGen ones to better serve the customers with touch-screen kiosks and counters that accept credit cards.
“So we will exceed 100 [of such concept outlets when we close 2019],” Torres said of their store innovation efforts.
Moving forward, the goal is to have a total of over 700 stores across the country, of which 70 percent will be converted to NxtGen by 2021.
McDonald’s Philippines first opened its outlet in Morayta, Manila, in 1981 under master franchise holder Dr. George T. Yang. The company has so far grown to have a network of more than 640 stores, with nearly 60,000 regular employees. It expects to have 670 outlets, both regular and NxtGen, by year-end.
In Manila, it already has 45 branches to date, with 2,500 direct hires (80 percent of them are locals). Five more outlets are set to open in 2020.
With the firm’s partnership with the City of Manila, it will soon be employing at least 120 alternative workers, of whom 80 are senior citizens and 40 are persons with disabilities in at least 40 of its owned stores in the country’s capital.