McDonald's to nearly double China outlets in three years

SHANGHAI: McDonald's said on Tuesday it plans to nearly double its number of outlets in China by the end of 2013 as the US fast-food giant seeks to expand its presence in the world's biggest developing economy.

The company aims to boost the number of its outlets in China to 2,000 from around 1,100 in three years, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing Tim Fenton, the company's president of Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

McDonald's will open 150-175 outlets in the country this year, its China chief executive Kenneth Chan said.

The company, the epitome of free-market US capitalism, opened its first outlet in communist China in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen in 1990 and now employs more than 60,000 people around the country.