GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A grand jury in the US has not indicted a McDonald’s cook who was famously accused of assaulting two customers, with the incident caught on a surveillance camera inside the restaurant in Greenwich Village in New York.
He had been indicted on assault charges for swinging a metal object at them several times after the women appeared to attack him by slapping him, with one of the women climbing over the counter and the other joining her when he tried to retreat into the kitchen.
The incident was sparked when a cashier questioned a $50 bill offered by the women. The cook, who gave one of the women a fractured skull and neurological damage, according to her lawyer, had a history of violence.
The two 24-year-old women now face several charges, including disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing, according to CNN.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A major manhunt is on for the person who walked into a McDonald’s in Biel/Bienne and opened fire shortly after 08:00 Monday morning 28 November. Two employees were injured, one of them critically. Police say it is not yet clear if robbery was involved or if any money was taken. A third employee was near the restaurant but was uninjured.
The man who escaped is 160-165cm tall and heavyset. He was masked at the time of the shooting and was dressed in a black cap, beige jacket, jeans and dark shoes.
Bern police are asking witnesses or anyone with information to phone the cantonal police at +41 32 344 5111.
The fast-food restaurant and several shops in the area were closed for much of the day.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Health-minded parents have won: McDonalds in the US will be putting fewer french fries in children’s Happy Meals and adding an apple plus low-fat milk and chocolate milk as drink options. The company will introduce the new meals in September as part of a nutrition drive that includes providing calorie and nutrition information via iPhone and other apps.
The new menus will be 20 percent lower in calories; Happy Meals account for an estimated 10 percent of the company’s business in the US, according to Ad Age, which notes that “the announcement comes just weeks after the National Restaurant Association, in conjunction with Healthy Dining, launched a voluntary initiative by the restaurant industry to spur chains to offer and promote healthier kids-meal options. Chains such as Burger King and Chili’s jumped on board, but McDonald’s was noticeably missing from the list of participants.” The advertising industry newspaper says that McDonalds, under pressure from consumer groups to reduce or completely cut marketing to children, reduced its marketing for Happy Meals by almost 46% in the first quarter of 2011, compared to a year earlier.
McDonalds has announced it will close the three McDonalds restaurants it has in Reykjavik, Iceland because the collapse of the Icelandic krona has made imports too expensive. It will close at the end of October, the compnay announced 26 October. Margins have been falling and prices rising since Iceland’s economy imploded with the world financial crisis. The krona lost 80 percent of its value against the Euro in 18 months.
McDonalds’ stipulated that all inputs, including the packaging, must come from Germany. A Big Mac sells for the equivalent of $5.29, close to the top price in Europe. Only in Switzerland and Norway are the company’s hamburgers more expensive, according to the Economist’s yearly Big Mac index. Adding another 25 percent to the price would have made them completely uncompetitive, said Magnus Ogmundsson, the managing director of McDonald’s franchise holder in Iceland.He hopes to continue selling hamburgers under a different name, with local sources of ingredients and the same workforce.
McDonalds announced in July that it was moving its European headquarters from London to Geneva by the end of the year. AP,Economist, NZZ (Ger)
McDonalds CEO Martin Knoll
Crissier, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Martin Knoll, 51, CEO of McDonald’s Switzerland since 2003, died Friday 21 August in an accident while riding his mountain bike near Engstlenalp, canton Bern, the Crissier, canton Vaud-based company announced.
An Austrian, Knoll joined the company as marketing director for McDonald’s in Austria in 1993. He was was named CEO of the Austrian company in 1997, then vice-president of marketing for 18 countries in Europe and Central Asia, before taking charge of the more than 140 McDonald’s restaurants in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
He is survived by his wife and two children.
Geneva's Mont Blanc McDonald's sports the new look
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The latest company to leave the UK and move to Switzerland is fast food giant McDonald’s, which will shift its European head office to Geneva later in 2009, the Tribune de Geneve reported late Friday. European president Denis Hennequin and a small team of possibly a dozen people will make the move. The Tribune says the company will be housed in the former offices of Bank Mirabaud on Boulevard du Théâtre, but the company has said only that details will be announced closer to the date of the move.
The UK’s Telegraph newspaper links the move to a change in the UK’s “taxation of foreign profits linked to intellectual property rights such as patents and trademarks” but it notes that the company stresses its tax rate will remain virtually unchanged.
Fribourg, Switzerland (20 Minutes) – A mother in Grange-Paccot, canton Fribourg, was shocked when her seven-year-old daughter fished an unused condom in its original packaging out of the French fries she had just bought at a nearby McDonalds, reports 20 Minutes.
McDonald’s is cutting the prices of about 40% of its food products in China by 33%, reports Reuters, pushing the cost to consumers down to levels of 10 years ago for half of the fast food chain’s offer.
Latest reports in from McDonald’s, and forecasts from Wal-Mart, show profits for both companies despite the impact on consumers of the global financial crisis.
