McDonald’s Corp. said high traffic and new menu items such as frappes and smoothies helped propel its second-quarter profit 12.8 percent to $1.2 billion, from $1.09 billion in the same period a year ago.
The Oak Brook-based company’s earnings per share grew 15 percent from the year-ago period to $1.13.
“McDonald’s second quarter reflects strong top-line and bottom-line results with each area of the world generating higher comparable sales, traffic and profits,” CEO Jim Skinner said in a statement.
McDonald’s strong performance comes at a time when the rest of the industry is still struggling. According to the NPD Group, total restaurant traffic was down 3 percent for the year ending May 2010.
Visits to quick service restaurants were a little better, but also down 2 percent. Consumer spending in the quick-service segment was flat for the same period.
In an earnings call run by McDonald’s President and Chief Operating Officer Don Thompson, executives underscored the overwhelming success of frappes and smoothies in the U.S. Smoothies, Thompson said, have “blown away our high-end projections.”
He added that the overall combined beverage business, which in the last year has added products like lattes, is also performing ahead of expectations, $125,000 in sales per U.S. restaurant, and about $1 billion to the company’s bottom line.
“We’re definitely exceeding those numbers, particularly with the launch of frappes and smoothies,” Thompson said, adding that these beverages “are not the last installment.” McDonald’s is currently testing frozen strawberry lemonade in a handful of markets.
Thompson also addressed perceived shortages in the smoothie supply, noting that there is plenty of fruit to make the products, but there had been an issue with “a plastic nozzle on one of the produce bags.”
