Campaigners have targeted the fast food behemoth after McDonald’s Israel revealed last year that it had provided hundreds of free meals to Israel Defense Forces soldiers engaged in combat in Gaza. Boycotts of a similar nature have also targeted the coffee company Starbucks.
According to London Stock Exchange Group data, the fast food behemoth said that sales growth for the period in its division, which includes the Middle East, China, and India, was 0.7%. This is far less than the 5.5% market estimate.
It follows controversy that began in October of last year when McDonald’s Israel declared it had provided hundreds of free meals to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) combatants.
Critics of Israel’s military operation in Gaza unleashed a violent backlash in response to the move, including demands for a boycott of the business.
Other firms that have been targeted by similar boycotts include Starbucks and Zara, which last week lowered its annual sales projections and underperformed the market.
McDonald’s said in a trading update on Monday that its worldwide developmental licensed markets division’s results for the month of October through the end of December were “positive… with the exception of the Middle East, which was impacted by the war in the region.”
About 10% of the business’s overall revenue came from this section in the previous year.
