Macdonald’s is generally known for its ‘burgers and supersized, rather unhealthy concoctions of chips and meat. No one saw it as a potential rival to the more sophisticated Starbuck’s or Coffee Republic or any of the other high street coffeehouses. But believe it or not Macdonald’s is setting itself up as just such a rival.
The world’s largest restaurant corporation’s aim is to create a sub-brand called McCafe. This means refitting a traditional McDonald’s restaurant to accommodate speciality coffee and other beverages. It’s a risk, though, because there’s no guarantee that the McDonald’s public will appreciate the changes or that the general public will see McDonalds as a specialist coffee outlet worth visiting when they already have a host of others that have built up a mystique McDonalds possibly will never achieve.
Nevertheless the early signs are encouraging, with sales of espresso based drinks meeting or exceeding expectations in some of their markets. There are promotional deals available as well featuring hot or iced mocha drinks on certain days.
In order to get things right, McDonald’s people visited coffee growing areas abroad to get a handle on how coffee is grown and harvested, a good idea if you’re going to compete with the quality products supplied by the high street coffeehouses.
They visited coffee farms in Indonesia, Brazil and Guatemala as well as Costa Rica where their designated roasting company, Distant Lands, has a farm. Eventually McDonald would use beans from all four countries in their espresso bland.
Distant Lands was at first slightly sceptical about McDonald’s desire to compete with the best coffeehouses around.
But this scepticism soon dissipated when it was realised that McDonald’s was, indeed, serious about providing its customers with good coffee. Besides, being a McDonald’s supplier is no bad thing. The corporation tends to stick with their suppliers if they do a good job and huge profits are potentially available. Some suppliers have been with the company for decades. Its original hamburger supplier, for instance, is still supplying over 50 years later.
In fact whole markets can be influenced by what McDonald’s does. The US dairy industry experienced a lift when the corporation introduced milk in plastic bottles that went down well with children and which competitors had to emulate. There may well be the same lift for the dairy industry with the promotion of McCafe’s coffee that can contain up to 80% milk.
McCafe offers espressos, Lattes, Mochas and Cappuccinos using its unique blend of coffees. The blend produces a dark roast coffee with spicy and earthy tones and a slight caramel sweetness. Its McCafe website sets out what each of these coffees is comprised of and the sizes you can order – and there’s no hint of ‘supersizeing’, just the traditional small, medium and large. There’s iced mocha as well.
McCafes are planned for the UK and other countries in Europe. It will be fascinating to see, however, whether regular users of Starbucks or Costa will venture into the supposed downmarket McDonalds for their daily brew. Only time, the coffee and the quality of the ambience will tell.