FOR all that was thrown its way during the global pandemic, Australia's biggest beef customer, McDonald's, barely took a backward step. Its sales dropped only 10 per cent.
And for all the headwinds coming down the pipeline now, from labour shortages to across-the-board hikes in input costs, the fast food king is showing every sign of growing.
McDonald's knows burgers like no one else and it knows its customers inside out.
So when it is willing to share information like what its customers are saying about beef, why it is giving plant-based a crack and which country consumes the most beef per store, Australia's beef producers sit up and listen.
McDonald's worldwide supply chain director for beef Andrew Brazier gave a candid rundown on the company's business at Beefex22 in Brisbane last week, the annual conference of the Australian Lot Feeders' Association.
With 39,000 restaurants across 109 countries, every day Macca's feeds one per cent of the world's population.
Last year, its sales added up to $24 billion, a 16pc year-on-year lift.
It's top five markets for beef sales - the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan and Germany - all showed growth in sales.
Macca's top five selling burgers last year - the Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, Cheeseburger, Double Cheeseburger and McDouble - accounted for 83pc of its total global beef sales.
Clearly, McDonald's is getting its core business right and its core business is beef.
"The Big Mac is our undisputed number one seller in our largest markets but not in every market," said Mr Brazier, an expat Australian and ex meat trader who now works out of McDonald's Chicago headquarters.
"For instance, we sell more Angus in China than Big Macs.
"And while Japan tends to prefer a smaller burger, the UK sells 20pc more double Quarter Pounders and single Quarter Pounders.
"So while our core menu drives most of our sales, it's important we maintain agility."
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Getting through COVID
When governments starting shutting down non-essential business as COVID spread, McDonald's found itself with hundreds of millions of dollars of raw materials sitting in pipelines that it suddenly had no outlet for.
"Those foods had limited shelf life and we had no idea when we could re-open," Mr Brazier said.
"Nor what demand would be like when we did."
Being one of the first to have the lights back on when things did reopen paid off.
"We saw line-ups on freeways go for miles as people were keen to get a sense of normal again," Mr Brazier said.
European markets collectively rebounded so quickly, the company was left scrambling for more capacity, he said.
The UK has become McDonald's largest beef consumption market, with almost 41t per store per annum sold.
By comparison, China sits at 4.5t. And while beef is only a third of the size of chicken sales in Japan, it has still been growing at 5pc each year since 2017.
Challenges
One of the biggest headwinds the global chain faces now is inflation.
"In normal years, beef might go up but cheese goes down. This year, however, our cost to operate, from food to energy to transport and labour, is experiencing a 20 to 30pc increase across the board," he said.
"At the same time, more aggressive weather patterns are playing havoc with our supply chains.
"As Aussies dealt with $12 lettuce earlier this year, we simply couldn't source enough and you can't serve a Big Mac without lettuce, so we airfreighted it in from California."
Planning 'what if' scenarios around foot and mouth disease, tackling the 'whitenoise' around cows and climate and dealing with the unpredictability of governments that can cause catastrophic impacts are all on the list of headwinds.
"We had to leave Russia, a market where we had 60,000 employees, significant infrastructure and where we'd spent very large amounts on development because of the Ukraine war," Mr Brazier said.
Recipe for success
Staying one step ahead of consumer trends appears to be McDonald's recipe for success against such hurdles.
Along with changes like the search for more flexibility, balance and simplicity in hectic lives and the shift to digital, consumers were wanting to align their spend to their values, Mr Brazier said.
"They want to feel good about the food they eat," he said.
To that end, McDonald's has much going on in the sustainability and animal welfare space.
Meanwhile, the plant-based burgers are about broadening customer options, according to Mr Brazier.
"We tend not to be leaders in areas like these. We like to sit back and see what consumers think first," he said.
"Our first McPlant burger trial was in Canada three years ago. It went ok, but it certainly didn't' blow our socks off to the point where we thought we had to roll it out everywhere quickly.
"We are a business built on beef but we are also about offering choice to the consumer.
"Forty years ago we didn't sell chicken.
"We move in the direction consumers are going."
The McPlant is now open to business if particular markets make the choice to use it.
In fact, a trial is happening in Victoria at the moment.
Mr Brazier reported sales there were consistent with what had been seen elsewhere around the world.