McDonald’s CosMc’s Restaurant.
Courtesy: McDonald’s
McDonald’s will open the first location of its latest spinoff brand CosMc’s this week in Bolingbrook, Illinois.
The fast-food giant plans to open 10 CosMc’s locations, including nine restaurants in Texas, by the tip of 2024 in a test. McDonald’s will then spend a 12 months analyzing data to determine whether it is going to expand the small-format chain.
The name for the brand new brand comes from CosMc, a McDonaldland mascot that appeared in advertisements within the late Eighties and early Nineties. CosMc is an alien from outer space who craves McDonald’s food. The corporate has leaned more into marketing its mascots after seeing success with the Grimace Birthday Meal earlier this 12 months.
The burger chain first revealed it was creating CosMc’s as a spinoff in July, but withheld more details about its plans. Photos of the Bolingbrook location surfaced on X, formerly referred to as Twitter, earlier this week.
With a menu that features old favorites equivalent to Egg McMuffins and M&M McFlurries, and latest items equivalent to Churro Frappes and pretzel bites, McDonald’s is positioning CosMc’s as a quick, convenient way to grab a pick-me-up snack or coffee.
“When 3 p.m. hits, and you would like a lift, make a journey to CosMc’s,” a narrator said in a video shown to investors Wednesday.
Eighties McDonald’s Business screenshot featuring CosMc.
Source: McDonald’s | YouTube
McDonald’s specifically set out to create a brand that might sell customizable drinks and low popular within the afternoon segment.
“It is a $100 billion category growing faster than the remaining of the [informal eating-out segment] and with superior margins,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski told investors.
CosMc’s restaurants can have a smaller real-estate footprint than a typical McDonald’s location, but the brand new locations are testing a variety of layouts, including multiple drive-thru lanes. Customers using bank cards may also give you the option to pay on the drive-thru speaker, speeding up service times.
The announcement was a part of the corporate’s investor day. Executives unveiled long-term targets for its latest restaurant development, plans to recruit 100 million latest loyalty program members and a strategic partnership with Google.
But Kempczinski emphasized that investors shouldn’t get too excited yet about CosMc’s.
“Let me emphasize again, we’re talking about 10 stores,” he told investors on Wednesday. “The large story is not about CosMc’s, per se. The large story is what it says about McDonald’s and our potential. To think, a little bit over a 12 months ago, this was an idea, and this week we’re opening the first test site.”
But when the test works out, CosMc’s could open across the globe.
“It isn’t price our time to develop an idea that can only work in a single market,” Kempczinski said when explaining why McDonald’s created the brand.
Still, McDonald’s past efforts to expand beyond its primary business have not been successful. Within the late Nineties, it bought Donatos Pizza and Boston Market, and a stake in a fledgling Chipotle Mexican Grill. Lower than a decade later, it had divested from all three, which had turn out to be distractions as McDonald’s struggled.