Chocolate fries: sweet saviour or last gamble for McDonald’s Japan?

Customers like Shigeaki Yamaguchi may be the last hope for McDonald’s Japan as it battles slumping sales in the wake of an embarrassing string of food scandals. In Tokyo’s busy Shinjuku district, Yamaguchi munched on the chain’s newest culinary offering – french fries drizzled in brown and white chocolate syrup. “Delicious,” the 37-year-old proclaimed as he dug into the sticky 330 yen ($2.90) mass known as the McChoco Potato.

The chocolate fries have been extremely popular with customers, and actually not just customers in Japan.

McDonald’s president Sarah Casanova

Market share in Japan slipped to 10.4 per cent in 2014 from nearly 14 per cent five years earlier, according to market research firm Euromonitor. McDonald’s Japan last week reported an annual loss of 34.7 billion yen ($304 million), its second straight year in the red and the biggest shortfall since opening its first store in Tokyo’s posh Ginza district in 1971. Sales went into a steep dive after a mainland Chinese supplier was discovered to be mixing out-of-date meat with fresh produce. Then bits of plastic were found in a sundae and pieces of vinyl in chicken nuggets.

The company needs to appeal to customers by telling them they’re not using Chinese products but rather safe, domestically sourced ingredients.

Seiichiro Samejima, a fast food sector analyst at Ichiyoshi Research Institute

chocolate fries