McDonald's Gasses Up for Growth

OAK BROOK, ILL. – McDonald’s Corp. has begun soliciting partnerships with gasoline station and convenience-store operators in a reversal of its longstanding strategic aversion to such alliances.
The fast-food giant for the first time has installed a corporate director of petroleum alliances, Tom Morrison, and is distributing a brochure outlining optional McDonald’s building configurations that can fit with or within other companies’ operations. These range from what the brochure calls the ‘McDonald’s Classic,’ offering drive-through and walk-up service to the limited space and menu ‘McDonald’s Kiosk.’
‘We are in the early stages of looking at this concept (of teaming with petroleum and convenience chains),’ said McDonald’s spokeswoman Ann Connelley, who added that all partnership decisions would be made regionally, not corporately.