McDonald's names Bensen as CFO

McDonald's named a new chief financial officer Tuesday, while announcing plans to further franchise up to 1,500 more company-owned stores in some parts of the world.

Peter J. Bensen, 45, will become CFO of the world's largest fast-food chain in January. Bensen, the company's senior vice president and corporate controller, will succeed Matthew Paull, who announced his retirement earlier this year.

Also during a meeting with investors at the company's Oak Brook headquarters Tuesday, McDonald's announced plans to franchise between 1,000 and 1,500 stores to local owners during the next three years. About 70 percent of McDonald's 30,000 restaurants already are owned by franchisees.

McDonald's has been working to pare the number of company-owned restaurants, but executives said Tuesday they have no plans to cede ownership of all stores to franchise owners.

Executives said many of sites slated for sale are in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Australia and Canada. They declined to say how much the sale of those restaurants could bring in.

McDonald's also plans about 1,000 annual new store openings in coming years. That includes 160 stores in the fast-growing markets of Russia and China next year.

"We're more optimistic than ever about these markets," Paull said.

In other news, Don Thompson, president of McDonald's USA, announced the chain will roll out more profitable products over the next two years. They include;

• A Southern-style chicken sandwich

• A breakfast chicken biscuit

• A sausage breakfast burrito