McDonald’s Corp had disappointing results during July, largely because of concerns over food safety in Asia along with widespread problems across the United States, said the largest restaurant chain in the world on Friday.
For the second time during the week, McDonald’s announced the sales forecast for this year is at risk to be lowered further.
Sales at McDonald’s longstanding restaurants across the globe dropped by 2.5% in July, said the company.
Analyst had predicted a decline of 1.1% overall, with a drop of 2.6% for the U.S. and a decline of 0.5% for APMEA.
The decline in July of 2.5% in its global comparable locations matched the June performance of McDonald’s.
The results were the worst comparable sales that the restaurant chain has posted since March of 2003, when sales globally of comparable sales plummeted 3.7%.
Shares of McDonald’s dropped 21 cents during trading after the announcement was made by McDonald’s.
On Monday, McDonald’s warned its sale forecast for the full year might have to be lowered due to a number of different factors that have worsened from when the last quarterly reports were reported in late July.
On Friday, McDonalds said again that its sales at same stores for 2014 forecast, which called for flat same store sales.
One Wall Street analyst said he expect that the annual global comparable sales at McDonald’s will fall by 0.3%. If those sales drop, 2014 would mark the weakest annual sales performance at the company since 2002.
In the U.S., the restaurant chain struggled because it had its big Monopoly game running during July of 2013.
During the same period this month, the chain promoted its premium chicken and beef options, which might have turned off some diners who are value conscious.
Sales in same-stores have fallen in 8 of the last 9 months.
