In an interview with DTNext, she shares insights on how the fast food behemoth has been reinventing itself in COVID-19 times. Excerpts:

 Impact of WFH: While the in-store business has been impacted, we are seeing other business channels such as delivery, take-out and drive-thru exceed their pre-COVID level business. So, while the occasions of eating out may have changed, the demand continues to thrive. What is interesting is that this is helping build new customer engagements, habits and use-cases leading to a strong competitive advantage and business leadership for even beyond COVID-19.

 On business and strategy : The sentiment is improving with every passing week. We entered this black swan event with a strong balance sheet and robust global learnings from markets ahead of us in their COVID-19 curve. Thus, we were able to take quick and informed decisions to realign business priorities to the emerging customer needs. We were the first company to launch contactless delivery and since then have been pioneering many industry-first initiatives such as contactless take-away and the innovative on-the-go service that enables customers to pre-order food and get it delivered to them in their vehicle in a spot close to the restaurant. Our strategy is pegged on three key pillars, assurance, convenience and access.

 Expansion plans: We have 320 McDonald’s restaurants across 42 cities in the western and southern markets. We see untapped potential here and remain focused on them. We will wait and watch before expanding outlets. The need of the hour is discipline in decision- making, including in reviewing all investments and reducing expenditures, wherever possible. Once normalcy returns, our immediate focus will be on the projects underway but halted due to lockdown. In fact, we launched a new restaurant in Kerala in the last quarter amidst all challenges.

 Healthy food demands: It’s a journey we have already been on for a couple of years now. In 2018, we launched the ‘Good Food Journey’ initiative and reworked our menu to make it more nutritious and wholesome. As a part of the exercise, we reduced sodium in our fries, nuggets, patties and sauces by over 20 per cent and cut down the oil content in mayonnaise by 40 per cent, making it the first ever low-fat mayo in the Indian (Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry. We also ensured none of our patties had any artificial colours or preservatives and increased their dietary fibre by as much as 20-25 per cent. We also became the first ever QSR to launch whole wheat buns. Our flagship burger McAloo Tikki has been recognised as a balanced meal by National Institute of Nutrition for having the right 

balance of carbohydrates, protein and fat.

 We have consciously built and maintained a well diversified real estate portfolio which consists of high-street stores, standalone stores, drive-thru and highway stores in addition to mall stores. This served as a competitive advantage during this crisis as we were able to ensure serviceability despite malls and some other formats being shut.

 We have also launched ‘On-the-Go’ service using which customers can order their food on our app and collect it from a spot close to the store which is on their way. With this, we have virtually converted all our restaurants into drive-thru stores, at almost no cost. We are seeing this platform grow phenomenally week on week.