McDonald's to roll out digital ordering kiosks at its refurbished UK restaurants

McDonald's will launch table services across its refurbished UK stores in February and add more options to its premium burger range currently on trial. The move is in line with a reimaging programme that it has initiated to improve its brand image amid increasing competition in the fast food space.

The burger chain said table service will be offered via digital kiosks that allow customers to place their orders directly from their tables and have the food delivered to them. It has already tested the kiosks across 14 locations and the rollout across all of its newly refurbished restaurants follows successful test results.

Paul Pomroy, chief executive of McDonald's UK said: "We opened 26 new restaurants last year and the rollout of our reimaging programme is transforming the way we serve customers, and has been a key growth driver. To date, over 300 restaurants have been refurbished and we expect a further 350 to be completed and reopened for customers by the end of the year – an average of one every day."

The move in the UK follows McDonald's chief executive Steve Easterbrook's mission to revitalise the 75-year-old company. His most recent move was the launch of a bold and colourful new packaging for the food it serves.

The company, which has recently been accused of being anti-competitive in Italy, announced that it had a record fourth quarter in 2015 in the UK after offering its customers healthier side options such as carrot sticks apart from adding more variety to its Happy Meal menu, including Roald Dahl books as a giveaway.

"Value has also remained a focus in 2015, with the double cheeseburger our highest selling item, and our McCafe range has continued to perform well, and we remain the biggest seller of black and white coffee in the UK," Pomroy added.

However, revenues at the group level declined by 7% to $25.4bn (£17.8bn, €23.4bn) for the burger chain, weighed down by currency translations, despite a 1.5% increase in global like-for-like sales. The company also returned $9.4bn to its shareholders during 2015 as part of its promise to return $30bn in share repurchases and dividends by the end of 2016.