CNBC Television · Sep 23, 2026
With Chris Kempczinski, CEO of McDonald's
McDonald's has a 40 share, meaning 40% of sales, in the roughly $50 billion global beef category, by Chris Kempczinski's count. In the $230 billion beverage category it has a 10 share.
Inside McDonald's, flat customer traffic and high inflation had been talked about as a difficult environment. Kempczinski said he expects neither to change, and has told his team to stop calling it difficult.
"And one of the things I've talked to our team about is we need to stop talking about that being a difficult environment and just say that is the environment."
Chris Kempczinski, CEO of McDonald's, spoke to CNBC Television in an exclusive interview on the morning the company held its first investor day in three years, where it set financial targets running to 2030.
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 4 takeaways that matter.
Key Takeaways
Industry traffic will stay largely flat and inflation elevated for years in developed markets, in his view
Growth has to be taken from competitors
McDonald's holds a 40 share in beef but about 20 in chicken and 10 in beverages
Chicken and beverages are far bigger categories than beef
Margins are to reach the low to mid 50s by 2030, from top-line growth plus technology-driven efficiency
The plan is better food, a better restaurant experience and technology that makes restaurants easier to run
1. A Shine on McDonald's
The anchor opened with the stock. The company was unveiling new financial targets, work on the restaurant concept and food quality, and plans to materially support franchisees, the anchor said, and the shares were falling.
The stock was on course for its worst day of the year
McDonald's is under some pressure this morning, pacing for the worst day of the year so far, as the company kicks off its first investor day in three years.
CNBC Television
Asked for the main message of the day, Kempczinski said McDonald's is building on its strength.
The goal is more visits from more customers
We have one of the world's great brands with McDonald's, and the opportunity for us is to be the first choice for more customers more often.
Chris Kempczinski
He listed three ways to get there: better taste and quality of the food, a better experience in the restaurants, and technology that makes the restaurants easier to operate. He said he was excited to share the plan and that "it's all about just putting a shine on McDonald's."
2. Room to Grow in Chicken
An interviewer pointed to two of the new targets: share gains in chicken and beverages, and wider operating margins, both by 2030.
The interviewer's figure for the share target
Yeah, what's pretty interesting, I think, are some of the targets — adding a point and a half of share gains in chicken and beverage by 2030.
CNBC Television
Kempczinski answered with the size of the company's three priority categories and its share of each. A "share" here is a percentage of the category's global sales.
Beef is where McDonald's is already strongest, and the smallest of the three
Beef is about a $50 billion category globally. We already have a 40 share of beef. But if you think about chicken, chicken's $130 billion category, we have about a 20 share of chicken. Beverages is about a $230 billion category. We have a ten share of beverages.
Chris Kempczinski
Those numbers show how much room McDonald's has to grow in chicken and beverages while keeping its position in beef, he said, and that growth will drive sales.
3. Margins in the 50s by 2030
The second lever is cost. Kempczinski said the company has been using technology to make itself more efficient and sees more room to do so.
Sales growth plus efficiency gets margins to the low to mid 50s
But when you put the two of those together, strong top line growth with us doing the things that we should be doing to make the organization more efficient, all of that delivers on that margin improvement, getting us to low to mid 50s on margins by 2030.
Chris Kempczinski
4. This Is the Environment
The interviewer asked whether the backdrop was an industry with slow growth and inflation that stays high. Kempczinski said yes, at least in developed markets. Over the last few years, industry traffic, the number of customer visits across restaurants, has fallen while inflation stayed elevated. He has told his team to stop describing that as a difficult environment, because he does not expect it to change.
No return to strong traffic growth, and years more of inflation
We're not expecting that the industry all of a sudden is going to go to having robust traffic growth. We think that's going to be largely flat. We do think inflation is going to be with us for, unfortunately, I think many more years at an elevated level.
Chris Kempczinski
In a market that is not growing, he said, a company can only grow by taking customers from its rivals.
Growth has to come from competitors
And the biggest thing that you need to do in an environment like that is you have to be able to earn share, you have to be able to actually grab growth from your competitors.
Chris Kempczinski
Bonus Insights
His outlook covers developed markets only
Kempczinski limited his view of flat traffic and high inflation to developed markets.
I'll leave developing markets aside because they operate a little bit differently.
Chris Kempczinski
Kempczinski's bottom line is that McDonald's is planning for years of flat restaurant traffic and elevated inflation, and will grow by winning share in chicken and beverages while technology lifts its margins to the low to mid 50s by 2030.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
McDonald's (Kempczinski's company, which held its first investor day in three years and set targets for share gains in chicken and beverages and for margins by 2030)
Watch the full interview
If this was worth your time, send it to someone who follows the name.
Get the latest market chatter as it happens: