Interview: McDonald’s UK boss Paul Pomroy on personalisation, partnerships… and Piers Morgan

For the first time in McDonald’s 46-year history in the UK, the business has started selling pots of its famous Big Mac Special Sauce to customers in its restaurants.

Fans of the chain will say it has been a long time coming – the sauce has already gone down a storm. But McDonald’s UK boss Paul Pomroy, a 24-year veteran of the burger conglomerate, is more measured in his approach.

Sitting in a booth in the McDonald’s restaurant on the ground floor of its HQ, Pomroy explains: “Us selling Big Mac sauce for a few weeks is a test – it’s a test on demand, it’s a test on what happens afterwards, what happens before.

“Do people stop buying Big Macs after they’ve bought the sauce? Who knows. It’s the first step to understanding what things like that will do to core demand. We don’t want to go after 5% of something and muck up the 95% – our core restaurant business.

“It’s the first time we’ve ever done it, so we’re giving away some bottles as well – Piers Morgan will probably get a bottle at some point,” Pomroy jokes, nodding to the TV presenter’s public disdain for vegan alternatives. “He doesn’t like our vegetarian products, but he does love a Big Mac.”

“Do people stop buying Big Macs after they’ve bought the sauce? Who knows. It’s the first step to understanding what things like that will do to core demand. We don’t want to go after 5% of something and muck up the 95%”

Paul Pomroy, McDonald’s

Selling one of its hero products is a strategic lever that a number of McDonald’s restaurant and food-on-the-go rivals have pulled long before now. Businesses such as Nando’s, Greggs and Pizza Express already supply a curated range of sauces and menu items to grocers including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Iceland, establishing a fresh revenue stream.

Although Pomroy refuses to rule out striking a similar partnership with traditional retailers in the future, he is in no rush to see the McDonald’s logo adorning supermarket shelves. Being happy to follow the competition, rather than always lead the pack, is a trait the Londoner has honed during his five years as McDonald’s UK chief executive.

Holding back

Pomroy, who forms part of the speaker line-up at Retail Week Live next month, explains: “One of the questions I always get asked is: ‘What is the thing you are most proud of in your restaurants?’ A lot of the things I am most proud of are the things we have held back on for the right time.

“The reason we are taking our time on plant-based food, for instance, is to understand the true customer profile of who wants that. We think it’s here to stay, but we need to understand the ingredients that go into it, and how you do it in a truly sustainable and environmentally friendly way. It’s a very deep conversation.”

In a thinly veiled swipe at rival Burger King, which suffered a consumer backlash for cooking its vegan burgers on the same grills as beef, Pomroy adds: “We’ve seen certain brands recently going flexitarian and that’s upset vegetarians and vegans because retailers are selling those patties as vegan products.

“If you find out that you’ve bought something that isn’t vegetarian or vegan, you’ll be upset and rightly so. Learning from that is important.”

“I set a very clear vision of strategy, but I don’t sign off on any design, I don’t sign off on any food and I don’t sign off on any marketing because I am not the target audience”

Paul Pomroy, McDonald’s

Pomroy’s own education was in the field of accountancy, securing a degree from City, University of London, before spending four years in Smith & Williamson’s insolvency team.

He joined McDonald’s in 1996, initially as a real estate analyst, progressing steadily through the ranks to senior roles including those of regional finance controller for London and the South East, head of business strategy and head of commercial finance.

Prior to his promotion to the summit of McDonald’s UK business, Pomroy was senior vice-president and chief financial officer, with additional responsibility for the company’s development and supply chain functions.

The latter is something he still discusses with great pride and exuberance. He eulogises about the company’s shift to source 100% of its meat from British and Irish farms, and spends almost three minutes delving into the nuances around weather, soil and colour required to grow a potato fit for McDonald’s fabled fries.

But don’t confuse that intrinsic knowledge of the business with micro-management. Pomroy pinpoints one of the keys to his and McDonald’s success – the business has racked up 56 consecutive quarters of like-for-like growth – as the willingness to empower and trust its people.

Pomroy tastes all reformulated food – items that have had salts, sugars or fats removed from them – before they hit the restaurant menu, but does not try every new product. “We have professional, trained taste-testers here in our team that do that,” he says. “They eat food like wine-tasters drink wine. It’s a bit off-putting. I just take a bite – they do all this weird stuff.

“I deliberately don’t get too involved,” Pomroy says. “I set a very clear vision of strategy, but I don’t sign off on any design, I don’t sign off on any food and I don’t sign off on any marketing because I am not the target audience.

Pointing towards a wooden design that hangs above one of the restaurant’s tables, he says: “I would never have signed off that design, with struts of wood that aren’t straight. Customers love it, but I’m sat there saying: ‘It looks like someone’s put it up wrong.’

“Honestly, the only advert they ever asked me for approval on, a few years ago, was called ‘Dad’. It was all about a mum and a boy going into McDonald’s and his relationship with the dad who had died. It was a really nice advert but, in terms of sentiment, we got it wrong and we immediately pulled the advert the next morning.

“But I signed off on that because the team was worried about whether we could be seen in that manner in the community. We felt we could, and we got it wrong. It’s the only one I’ve ever signed off on and we got it wrong.”

Father-of-two Pomroy can afford to laugh at that story now, albeit with a slight grimace. 

Truly customer-led

McDonald’s has come a long way from what he calls its “all-time low” back in 2005. Back then, restaurants were opening at pace, but were not being made to feel modern and welcoming – customers would describe them as “plasticky, hard, cold”, Pomroy recalls. Like-for-like sales were flatlining and with wages and food inflation both rising, margins were shrinking rapidly.

“We always talk about needing to be confident but humble in our approach to who we are, but we had lost the strength of character to be confident,” Pomroy says. “We also weren’t truly listening to our customers. We were quite defensive, rather than looking to turn feedback into opportunities.

“One of the key things that has changed is that we now truly engage and listen to our people and our customers and our stakeholders. We have to be customer-led and stakeholder-endorsed – you can’t afford to flip it the other way. Everything you see that comes to our restaurants now starts from customers.”

And the difference is plain to see. Restaurants have been revamped at an impressive pace – McDonald’s franchisees spent more than £1bn in the space of just four years upgrading the look and feel of their restaurants.

A host of staple menu items including French fries and Pomroy’s personal favourite, the Big Mac, have had salt, sugar and fat levels slashed to better meet the demands of more health-conscious Brits.

Nutritional, low-calorie menu items such as salads and wraps have also been added, with carrot and fruit sticks making their way into children’s Happy Meals. And in one of its most game-changing strategic shifts, McDonald’s has joined forces with Uber Eats to allow customers to enjoy the entire Maccies menu from the comfort of their own homes.

“We do have people, randomly, who order a double espresso at 4am and pay £3 to have it delivered. It’s crazy,” says Pomroy – although the Tottenham Hotspur fan and keen sailor goes on to divulge an unusual eating habit of his own.

“Sometimes I have a craving for a Filet-O-Fish without the tartare sauce, but with ketchup. That’s great as variety.”

In-store touchscreens, referred to by Pomroy as “kiosks”, have made it easier for customers to indulge in such personalisation when ordering. “We have people come in and order a Big Mac with no meat, no cheese, no pickle – just sauce, lettuce and the bun, because that’s what they crave,” Pomroy says, with a shrug of the shoulders.

“Some brands use technology to cut service, understandably because they are under pressure, but we are trying to use it as a moment to make a step change”

Paul Pomroy, McDonald’s

But he has more up his sleeve when it comes to personalisation. McDonald’s is about to start work this month on revamping 1,000 drive-thrus – an extensive project that will be complete by the end of September. In total, between £50,000 and £60,000 will be spent on each of its 1,300 UK restaurants to install new technology, which will tailor the McDonald’s dining experience even further for its customers.

“Some brands use technology to cut service, understandably because they are under pressure, but we are trying to use it as a moment to make a step-change,” Pomroy states. “This year, you’ll see us upgrade all the drive-thru point of sale to digital. It looks great, but that’s not the only reason we’re doing it. That will unlock the ability to only show you the menu that you like.

“We will know you as a customer, whether you are in-store or in a drive-thru, either from your phone or your car registration if you opt in, and if you only ever eat a certain range, you can dictate to us what that range is and we will only suggest items to you that you are likely to buy, based on your previous purchasing habits, time of day, weather.

“For the customer, they see a more personalised menu, which people like, and for us, you don’t spend too long sitting there mesmerised by a mammoth menu and taking time to place an order.”

Pomroy and McDonald’s have learned some crucial lessons from those dark days of 2005. “You have to use growth to keep fuelling investment. I learned in the early 2000s that if you don’t keep investing, then you don’t keep growing,” he surmises.

“I like winning, I’m quite competitive and I’m winning at the moment. I don’t like losing. We’ve been probably the most successful retailer in the UK for the past five years. But I don’t like arrogance either, so for me, it’s about how we use that confidence to keep resetting the business and being humble. The biggest threat to us is complacency.”

As he continues to refine the McDonald’s recipe, Pomroy is determined to ensure it never loses its Special Sauce.