McDonald's Szechuan McNugget sauce was not perhaps the best known of the company's products. A plum concoction, it was produced in 1998 as part of a Disney promotion and then long forgotten until this past April, when a few bottles were rustled up following an appeal from one of the characters in Rick and Morty, a cartoon show. Of course, it was little more than a PR stunt, but it was also a demonstration of how the fast food behemoth, serving nearly 70 million customers a day around the world, has become rather nimble on its feet. McDonald's is once again the darling of Wall Street and most observers say this is thanks to Steve Easterbrook, the company's Watford-supporting, British-born chief executive. When he took over as McDonald's chief executive, Easterbrook did not pull any punches. “The reality is our recent business performance has been poor. The numbers don't lie,” he said in a corporate video. The figures were pretty horrific. In the US, sales had fallen 3.3pc in the previous six years, in Europe by 1.4pc and in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, once considered a growth region, a rather frightening 9.9pc. McDonald's was contracting, announcing for the first time in 45 years that it had closed more outlets than it had opened. What a difference a couple of years makes. In July the company's shares hit an all-time high. It announced its biggest surge in sales at its restaurants in five years – outstripping analysts' predictions. Business was being won back from traditional competitors and an investment in improving ingredients saw the company move its tanks into the drive-throughs of more upmarket rivals. Steve Easterbrook Credit: AP Greg Francfort, a restaurant analyst with Bank of America, says: “Fast food has benefited by an increasing tightness in the
