McDonald's failing to win over French with talk of 'McBaguette'

GlobalPost

The fast food giant McDonald's has sparked a passionate debate in France over its plans to introduce the "McBaguette".

The product will be trialed in the chain's 1,230 test restaurants for six weeks from Apr 18 as part of an attempt to adapt to French tastes, NewsCore says.

McDonald's French vice president for marketing Nawfal Trabelsi says the McBaguette consists of "a crispy baguette, served hot, with beef, a slightly strong whole grain mustard sauce and ripe Emmental cheese."

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However, the launch of the product has already met with some opposition from French food lovers.

The French current affairs magazine Le Nouvel Observateur suggests its "an assault by McDonald's on bakeries."

"With the McBaguette and the other pastries it already sells McDonald's is attacking a jewel of French gastronomy," one industry expert remarks, adding:  "If the McBaguette is a success, McDonald's can then look at selling other classics like the ham and butter sandwich and challenge, even more, the neighborhood bistros."

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French consumers have only recently converted to fast food, Europe 1 says, explaining that the fast food market grew from about US$26 billion in 2004 to nearly US$43 billion last year.

McDonald's pretax turnover for 2012 was US$5.5 billion.

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