MCDONALD’s Philippines is eyeing growth for 2023 on the back of strong sales in 2022, according to its top official.

The fast-food restaurant chain said in a statement on Thursday that it achieved “record-breaking sales” last year, exceeding its pre-pandemic sales performance. It did not provide specific figures.

It attributed the performance to “strong consumer mobility and post-pandemic behavior, continuous commitment to providing value for money, exciting limited-time menu offers, and an elevated omnichannel customer experience.”

“McDonald’s Philippines’ strong performance in 2022 wouldn’t have been possible if not for the trust and continuous support of our customers all over the country,” President and Chief Executive Officer Kenneth S. Yang said.

“As we aim to consistently improve how we serve McDonald’s favorites to every Filipino, we are equally committed to providing feel-good experiences to our people [crew and managers] who make it all happen in our stores, and in communities where we operate for many years to come,” he added.

According to the fast-food chain, it hired more than 17,000 new employees in 2022 to support its new store openings. It currently has close to 60,000 workers across more than 700 stores in the country.

“We have over 47,000 employees in Luzon, close to 6,000 employees in Visayas, and 5,000 employees in Mindanao,” it said.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s Philippines said that its “brand trust” rose by 5.4% since the launch in 2020 of its M Safe program, which intensified the company’s food safety and quality efforts via continuous monitoring and crew and manager training.

It added that its Kindness Kitchen, which serves meals to families without access to food, aims to serve 1 million meals by the end of the year. The initiative has served more than 800,000 meals as of December last year.

“It is these customers we serve, the people working in our restaurants and communities that we help that inspire and motivate us to be and do better. As many Filipinos continue to face challenges and recover from the pandemic, we want to be a place where they can experience feel-good moments,” Mr. Yang said.

“We want to be a company that Filipinos today and the future can trust,” he added.— Revin Mikhael D. Ochave