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What you need to know about McDonald’s Accelerating the Arches program

The growth plan includes new retro-style packaging, a chicken platform and expanded drive-thru innovation; the brand creates confusion about its partnership with Beyond Meat after announcing plant-based McPlant menu

It’s been a few days since McDonald’s Corp. held a splashy virtual investor conference to introduce its new growth strategy, Accelerating the Arches.

The ambitious plan covers a lot of ground, giving investors, franchisees and consumers much to chew on.  A large part of the plan expands on the chain’s strengths: its core menu and a sophisticated drive-thru experience powered by “smart” AI-powered digital menu boards.

With our new growth strategy, we will build on our inherent strengths by harnessing our competitive advantages and investing in innovations that enable us to continue to offer fast, easy moments for our customers,” CEO Chris Kempczinski said in prepared remarks.

As Nation’s Restaurant News stated earlier in our deep dive, McDonald’s is also chasing rivals like Starbucks, Chick-fil-A and Dunkin’ when it comes to other initiatives like developing a loyalty program and introducing a premium chicken sandwich.

McDonald’s also created confusion when chain leaders suggested that the company would be introducing its own plant-based menu, dubbed McPlant. Before the pandemic, the chain was testing a Beyond Meat burger in Canada. Does that mean the burger chain is scrapping its partnership with Beyond Meat?

We’ve done some research. To learn more about McPlant and other initiatives such as the rollout of new packaging, click on our gallery.

Contact Nancy Luna at [email protected] 

Follow her on Twitter: @fastfoodmaven

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