The vast majority of McDonald’s restaurants are locally owned under the franchise system and operate autonomously.
On Friday, McDonald’s announced that Padan had signed an agreement to sell the stores to McDonald’s after more than 30 years of ownership. His stores have more than 5,000 employees, who will be retained, it said.
“McDonald’s remains committed to the Israeli market and to ensuring a positive employee and customer experience in the market going forward,” Jo Sempels, president of International Developmental Licensed Markets at McDonald’s, said in the news release.
McDonald’s is among the brands that have been targeted in a boycott movement aimed at protesting Israel’s conduct in Gaza, in addition to companies such as Starbucks — which was criticized for taking its union to court over a social media post related to the war — and Disney, which plans to debut an Israeli superhero in an upcoming Marvel film.
McDonald’s recorded weak sales growth of 0.7 percent in its International Developmental Licensed Markets division, “reflecting the impact of the war in the Middle East,” it said in its most recent quarterly earnings report in February.
McDonald’s Israel said in an Oct. 22 social media post that the franchise had donated 100,000 meals to security and rescue forces, hospitals and residents of impacted areas, and that it was offering a 50 percent discount to all uniformed soldiers and security and rescue forces.
In the sale announcement, Padan said his franchise had “been proud to bring the Golden Arches to Israel and serve our communities.”
Alonyal could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.
