McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD) Q3 2024 Earnings Conference Call October 29, 2024 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Scott Meader - Interim Treasurer
Chris Kempczinski - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Ian Borden - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

David Palmer - Evercore
John Ivankoe - JPMorgan
Dennis Geiger - UBS
David Tarantino - Baird
Brian Harbour - Morgan Stanley
Sara Senatore - Bank of America
Eric Gonzalez - KeyBanc
Lauren Silberman - Deutsche Bank
Jeff Bernstein - Barclays
Jon Tower - Citi

Operator

Hello, and welcome to McDonald's Third Quarter 2024 Investor Conference Call. At the request of McDonald's Corporation, this conference is being recorded. Following today's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session for investors. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Scott Meader, Interim Treasurer for McDonald's Corporation. Mr. Meader, you may begin.

Scott Meader

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. With me on the call today are Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Chris Kempczinski; and Chief Financial Officer, Ian Borden.

As a reminder, the forward-looking statements in our earnings release and 8-K filing also apply to our comments on the call today. Both of those documents are available on our website, as are reconciliations of any non-GAAP financial measures mentioned on today's call, along with their corresponding GAAP measures.

Following prepared remarks this morning, we will take your questions. Please limit yourself to one question and then re-enter the queue for any additional questions. Today's conference call is being webcast and is also being recorded for replay via our website.

And now, I'll turn it over to Chris.

Chris Kempczinski

Thanks, Scott, and good morning, everyone.

I look forward to sharing our third quarter performance and the progress we have made on key initiatives against a challenging backdrop for the QSR sector. Before I do that, I want to address the recent E. coli cases related to slivered onions in a handful of US states. While the situation appears to be contained and though it didn't affect Q3 numbers, it's certainly an important development, which I know is on many of your minds.

For over 70 years, McDonald's commitment to food safety has been uncompromising. Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our customers, and we've been proud of our industry leadership in this area. The last serious public health issue in the US associated with McDonald's occurred more than 40 years ago. The recent spate of E. coli cases is deeply concerning and hearing the reports of how this has impacted our customers has been wrenching for us. On behalf of the entire system, we are sorry for what our customers have experienced. We offer our sincere and deepest sympathies and we are committed to making this right.