Thu 28th May 2015 - McDonald’s to end monthly like-for-like sales reports McDonald’s to end monthly like-for-like sales reports: McDonald’s is to stop reporting monthly like-for-like sales at its restaurants, beginning in July, its chief executive has announced. The company is the last restaurant operator in the United States to still publicly report monthly like-for-like sales, with the last rival operator to report monthly sales, Starbucks, having ended its reports seven years ago, in 2008. McDonald’s chief executive, Steve Easterbrook said the company was making the move “to focus our activities around strategic long-term actions we’re taking as part of our plan.” Disclosing like-for-like sales on a quarterly basis “is consistent with nearly all retailers, and will provide a greater understanding of sales results in the context of the company’s overall performance,” he said. The decision comes as McDonald’s continues to release a steady stream of disappointing monthly sales results. In April, like-for-like sales fell 0.6% worldwide and 2.3% in the US. Easterbrook made the announcement at a conference organised by Bernstein Research in the US. He also revealed that as part of its efforts to reverse falling sales in the US. McDonald’s will toast its buns longer to deliver a hotter burger, and will change the way it sears burgers so they are juicier. Easterbrook also unveiled details of the staffing changes being made as McDonald’s reorganises its international divisions. While the presidents responsible for McDonald’s in Europe, Asia and Africa oversee 40 markets and have staffs of up to 200 each, the new president of McDonald’s five “international lead markets” of Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the UK, Doug Goare, will have a staff of two, Easterbrook said. “The reality is, those five lead markets are all very well resourced, with great leadership,” he said. “I don’t think they need an entire tier on top of them.” Goare, who remains president of McDonald’s Europe until 1 July, will need to visit five countries instead of 40, meaning less travel time and more time in the markets, even if one of them – Australia – is a world away from the others. It may not seem significant outside McDonald’s, Easterbrook said, “but it’s incredibly liberating inside the business.”