McDonald's executives say E. coli outbreak is 'behind us'
A week after health authorities publicly linked a deadly E. coli outbreak to McDonald's Quarter Pounder burgers, the company's CEO, Chris Kempczinski, told investors that the situation is now behind them.
"How we've handled the issue, now that we're moving ... we view it as being behind us," Kempczinski said on the company's call Tuesday.
During his prepared remarks, he said that the "situation appears to be contained."
On Sunday, McDonald's said Quarter Pounder burgers would return to roughly a fifth of its U.S. footprint where the company had pulled the menu item following the outbreak. That amounts to roughly 3,000 restaurants, the company told CNBC Tuesday.
Health authorities didn't detect any E. coli in the burger's fresh beef patties, but the Food and Drug Administration is still investigating the slivered onions that are used in Quarter Pounders as the likely source. McDonald's has stopped sourcing onions from the supplier indefinitely, and around 900 locations will serve the Quarter Pounder sans slivered onions.
McDonald's saw daily sales and traffic to its U.S. restaurants turn negative in the days immediately following the outbreak announcement as consumers reacted to the news, CFO Ian Borden said. He added that the company isn't anticipating a material impact to the business.
Now McDonald's is focused on reassuring diners and returning to the higher sales it had been seeing earlier in October, fueled by its $5 value meal and the launch of the Chicken Big Mac.
"What I would say is we certainly believe the most significant events are behind us, and the work to do right now is focused on restoring consumer confidence, getting our U.S. business back to that strong momentum that I just talked about," Borden said.
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