Category: blog

Whether it’s McDonald’s or Burger King, KFC, or Domino’s, they all need great designs for their packaging. Part of eating a great burger or meal is the enjoyment of holding something in your hand that just look good even before opening the box and eating it.

The same goes for all the packaging you see in your local grocery store. The manufacturers are usually not the people who create the look ‘n feel of their product even though they do have final say of course.

Food manufacturers hire agencies to design their packaging. Those companies are food branding and packaging designers.

Agencies who’re specialised in making the packaging of food look great. Because before consumers taste their food, they first have to see it and (in grocery stores) hold it in their hands before they’ll buy and consume your food.

If it doesn’t look good, it won’t be bought and eaten. Companies spend millions and millions of Ponds each year to design and redesign their packaging. Often changing their packaging several times over the course of a few years. Following trends but also making sure their packaging looks different than the no-brand look-a-likes. Those competitors often (closely) imitate the packaging of their brand-name “parents” because that will increase their likelihood of being bought.

Back in August Burger King launched its first Vegan burger. The Impossible Whopper. They’re now introducing 2 more Vegan options to their menu.

The Rebel Whopper and the Rebel Chicken King are the next to burgers to be added to their menu. When the Vegan options are coming to the UK is unclear.

Many people have complained that the Impossible Whopper is not a real Vegan burger. If you just order the Impossible Whopper without adding the fact that you’d like it Vegan, it’s true! But if you tell the person who’s helping you at the registry you like it vegan they will cook the burger for you on a separate boiler. This way the animal (by-products) from the other menu items isn’t mixed with your Vegan Burger.

In the Sweden the 2 new burgers have already been introduced.

This is the Rebel Whopper

This is the Rebel Chicken King

Steve Easterbrook, McDonald’s CEO since March 2015 has been forced to step down. An e-mail at the company uncovered he had a relationship with a subordinate. Managers at McDonald’s are not allowed to have relationships with subordinates.

The board called a vote for the dismissal of Easterbrook.

He had “violated company policy” and has shown “poor judgement”.

“Given the values of the company, I agree with the board that it is time for me to move on,” Easterbrook said.

Chris Kempczinski will replacement with immediate effect. Kempczinski was President for McDonald’s US operations.

In a constant struggle for companies to become more and more environment friendly, McDonalds has made the move to go from a plastic straw to a paper one. The company uses 1.8 Million straws per day in the UK alone.

Online pressure from their customers has pushed McDonalds into changing their straws to paper ones. But now an online petition is asking to reverse its decision. People are concerned the straw “dissolves” in their drinks.

A lot of users are complaining online. Their straw dissolving even before they can drink any of their milkshake.

Others are thankful that the straws won’t be around in 400 years time.

Yesterday, March 30th, KFC held their annual event OpenKitchen. The restaurant chain opened 300 restaurants in the UK and Ireland to the public.

The general public was able to sign up for an event near them on https://kfc.seetickets.com/tour/kfc-open-kitchen. Tickets where available from March 13th and were quickly sold out.

Twitter has been on fire with their #KFCOpenTicket the past 24 hours. We’ve selected some nice Tweets for you to give you a nice overview of the day.

The restaurants opened up for the happy ticket holders a few hours before the restaurants normally opened. Early trespassers were warned by KFC :-)

For the first time in history McDonalds has introduced a Vegan menu for children (and their parents) who don’t eet meat based foods in the UK. The company says that eating vegan has become mainstream. The time is now to introduce a Vegan recipe.

Back in 2017 the company added a Vegan burger to their lineup in Finland but also mentioned they wouldn’t launch this around the globe. McDonalds UK & Ireland has made the choice to introduce the Vegan menu because they wanted to offer greater choice to their customers.

The menu bears the stamp of the Vegetarian Society. McDonalds has developed the menu in close collaboration with the Society. They’re proud to have received their stamp of approval.

The big restaurant and delivery brands are having a lot of trouble with their staff lately. The staff is striking because they say “we can’t live of the wage we’re getting now”. Staffers are demanding to be paid at least 10 Pounds per hour. The last strike happened on October 4th.

McDonalds is saying that only a really small portion of their 120,000 workforce in the UK is paid less than 10 Pounds per hour. They’re calling the strike disappointing.

A lot of people who are working in the restaurants are being paid a low wage because it’s fairly easy to fill in the spots with students and young people. Older people who are completely reliant on their wage from McDonalds, Uber and Deliveroo can’t get ends meet because of the low pay. Less than 10 Pounds an hour is not a wage you can live on. You’ll make about 1600 Pounds before taxes a month. In big cities the rent alone would account for more than 60% of someone’s wage. Let alone paying for groceries, child care, car payments, etc.

(Getty images)

4.5 million people are employed in the hospitality sector alone in the UK. They represent about 10% of the total employment in the country. So a lot of people depend on them. More and more people around the world are striking to get better wages. The economy is on the rise. Employment rate is up so workers can demand more. In the US people in the hospitality sector are demanding wages of $15 per hour as a minimum wage.

A few big chains in the US have already or have said they will raise their wages to $15 per hour. We’ll be following the news in the UK to see how the big chains here are responding to the strikes and if they’ll fold to the demands made.

It’s been a few weeks now since the first problems about their chicken delivery surfaced. KFC has yet to fix all the problems related to their delivery problems. KFC recently switched to a different delivery supplier who can’t meed the demand and is mixed up in a logistical nightmare. The new supplier just cannot fulfill the demand as quickly as it should.

More and more restaurants are opening up again. Not every restaurant is open with a full menu. Some are not serving all menu items. The below image was posted on their website and on twitter.

KFC is trying to make the best of it but they are losing a lot of money and a lot of clients. Some consumers even called the police because they thought something was wrong. Others called their local MP and told them how upset they were with the closing of their local KFC.

Consumers are not the only ones who are worried and upset. A lot of KFC stores are owned by franchisers who aren’t getting any money in the bank while their rent keeps tallying up.

KFC has actually contacted their old delivery supplier again to get things on the road again. How much that’s gonna cost KFC is unknown, but they’ll probably bleed quite a bit for that. DHL, their new delivery supplier has taken a part of the blame.

Today was national burger day! What #nationalburgerday hashtags, posts, grams did you spot today? What were your favorite burger gifs, pics, vids? Post em in the comments!

Here are ours:

Have a great National burger day!

McDonald’s

Serving close to 68 million customers on a daily basis, in a total of 119 countries across 36,538 outlets, McDonald’s is a public and the largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants globally. It was founded in 1940 in the United States where it began just as a barbecue restaurant operated by Maurice and Richard McDonald.

It mainly sells chicken, hamburgers, french fries, cheeseburgers, milkshakes, soft drinks, breakfast items and desserts. It has however expanded its menu in a bid to change the consumer tastes. The included items are such as fish, smoothies, fruits, wraps and salads.

In 1955, Businessman Ray Kroc became a part of the company as a franchise agent. Overseeing the chain’s worldwide growth, he later purchased it from the McDonald brothers and opened it as a corporation. The corporation is currently based in Oak Brook, Illinoi, with more than 420,000 employees, and, is confirmed to move to Chicago as its global headquarters by early 2018. Today, it collects its revenues from royalties, rent, fees paid by the franchisees and also sales in the company-operated restaurants.

With ‘I’m Lovin’ It‘ as the slogan, the McDonald’s restaurant is operated by an affiliate, the corporation itself or by a franchise.

Now, there are certain shocking as well as interesting facts about the McDonald’s that many people probably do not know. Let’s explore them.

• McDonald’s uses $2 Billion for advertising per year

Just like any company that’s looking forward to making immense sales, McDonald’s spends close to $2 Billion on advertising as well as marketing. This, when compared to other known companies (particularly fast food brands) is way much higher.

This has made it become a household brand globally, and more so, due to its very persuasive campaigns. For instance, according to a recent study, 96% of school going children was able to name Ronald McDonald-the clown character, more than other fictional characters.

• McDonald’s is so far the world’s largest toy distributor

Apart from the sumptuous meals they prepare, McDonald’s has found a way of trapping the young ones into their stores. They use the ‘happy meals’ which is the kids’ meals to advertise toys from the latest video game or movie, or any other new product available. Now, more than 1.5 billion toys are distributed yearly by the McDonald’s. In a recent research, 40% of children aged between 2 to 11 years normally ask their parents to take them to McDonald’s once every week, while 15% literally plead to their parents to take them daily. McDonald’s have also proved to be different by providing private playgrounds for the children, a move that has indeed instilled loyalty to the consumers at a tender age still.

• McDonald’s sell more than 75 hamburgers each second

Each single day, hundreds and thousands of people feed at the McDonald’s chain, with a good number ordering hamburgers in all of the chains.

• McDonald’s University

If you thought that McDonald’s was only interested in your stomach, then you are out for a shock! Located in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, is the McDonald’s university, which trains restaurant managers as well as owners. Also known as the Hamburger university, it was established in 1961, and since then, it has had over 80,000 students, with 22 other centers being established all over the world.

• McDonald’s is the richest in the third world countries

With its revenues coming to $27 billion per year (i.e. $75 million each day), McDonald’s is regarded as one of the most profitable companies worldwide. The franchise chains only earn $8.7 billion. This puts McDonald’s in the 90th position, in the list of the largest economies in the world.

Well, these are just but some of the interesting things you may not have known about this world’s most popular and loved fast food joint.