MCDONALD'S hailed the rapid growth of its delivery business and trials for smaller-format sites in the UK as the global business missed sales forecasts.
The fast food giant saw total sales increase 1% to $5.4 billion (£4.18bn) for the quarter to September, but shares slipped as growth slowed against strong comparatives.
In the UK, the company said growth was particularly driven by its continued online expansion and new products on its menu.
Paul Pomroy, chief executive officer of McDonald's UK and Ireland, said the restaurant group's McDelivery partnership with Uber Eats has surged in popularity.
The chain said that delivery is now available across 950 of its sites across the UK and accounts for just over 10% of all its UK business. On September 18, the company received a record 124,000 delivery orders, it added.
It said that it has also benefited from its launch of the My McDonald's app last year, which has had 3.6 million downloads since it was launched.
McDonald's said it has also continued with its site expansion programme and expects to have 40 new drive-thru and high street restaurants by the end of 2019.
Mr Pomroy added: "Together with our franchisees, and thanks to the hard work of all our people, I'm pleased to share that we have achieved a further quarter of growth.
"In today's world, this is not something that happens by chance - it is because we have stayed focused on the things that matter to our customers; great tasting food, great value, great service and unparalleled convenience."
He added that the recent launch of spicy McNuggets and its double quarter pounder "drove particularly strong performance".
The business also highlighted the "encouraging" performance of the new smaller-format McDonald's To Go store, which has a limited menu to improve speed of service, it launched in the quarter.
The UK chief added: "We are entering the festive period with momentum behind us.
"As we end 2019 and enter a new decade, I am confident that our customer-led and people-focused approach will see us enjoy continued success."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here