McDonald’s to spend P3B on ‘NXTGEN stores’ in 2019

McDonald’s NXTGEN flagship store in McKinley West, Taguig City. Photo courtesy of McDonald’s Philippines

The master franchise holder McDonald’s in the Philippines is looking at spending P3 billion on store innovation initiatives in 2019.

On Wednesday, McDonald’s Philippines launched its NXTGEN flagship store in McKinley West, Taguig City.

The store features self-ordering kiosks, a digital alternative to order and pay for their meals using Mastercard and Visa card payments regardless of the issuing bank.

“Next year, we expect the capital investment to grow by 50 percent [from P2 billion this year] so we’re looking at a capex of P3 billion,” McDonald’s Philippines executive vice president and managing director Margot Torres told reporters in a press briefing in Taguig City.

The capital spending plan will finance the construction and conversion of McDonald’s restaurants into NXTGEN stores as well as it expansion plans, Torres said.

“The new stores that we will open will already be offering this kind of service platform,” she said.

By the end of the 2018, McDonald’s expects to have opened 15 NXTGEN stores.

“By 2019, 10 percent of our store base will already be NXTGEN. But the goal is to convert by 2021 into NXTGEN 70 percent of the stores,” Torres said.

With 570 new stores in 2017, the company target to end 2018 with 620 stores.

In the first half of the year, McDonald’s Philippines posted a net income of P741 million, up 26 percent from P595 million a year earlier. —VDS, GMA News