We cover menu boards, both software and hardware, and the other day we were surprised to see a press release by a company regarding their new mega client.   It's not often we talk about what our major clients are doing. It's more fun just getting the business, the revenue and the profit.  

McDonald's is a tough profit equation for sure (single digits as a rule) and along with Walmart are two of the most sought-after clients, and ironically the most often regretted clients (at least from a profit analysis).

Related News Update - Worth noting the MRI now has litigation filed for Samsung and also respondents Coates Group and Palmer Digital -- Link on menu-board.net

In Brief

• Coates calls itself a “global technology company specializing in digital merchandising solutions”
• Coates announces it is now the single global Digital Menu Board CMS provider
• One of two approved hardware providers though we know of others in UK and Germany
• Five-year agreement
• Coates historically has been a hardware provider so this would be a big catch for them.
• Their CMS hasn't been high profile with other customers signing on so this is a big jump
• Acrelec was founded by two former McDonald’s employees in early 2000, Jacques Mangeot and Jalel Souissi, who aimed to reimagine the customer experience through innovative self-order kiosks and drive-thru technology and solutions. Acrelec counts over 80,000 installations in 80 countries.
• More viewpoint
  • current incumbent STRATACACHE has the software deal in the US with McDonald’s.
  • Stratacache uses LG displays. Coates uses Samsung. Acrelec too?
  • Global versus country operations. Distinctions matter.  What about Germany running MDT for example on 4000 screens? Or the U.S. restaurants running Stratacache?
  • Company-owned Mcdonald's restaurants versus franchises. Figure 14K in the US and 700 are company owned. 39,000 worldwide and 36000 franchised.  Figure 120 countries.
• To a certain extent, this deal reminds us of Ziver Birg and McDonalds kiosks.  Great marketing and they ended up selling to Verifone for a nice bit of change based on a guaranteed under-contract upside.

Excerpt

NEWS PROVIDED BY Coates Group 
Aug 11, 2022, 13:00 ET

CHICAGO, Aug. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Coates Group, a global technology company specializing in digital merchandising solutions, was named as McDonald's single global Digital Menu Board (DMB) Content Management System (CMS) provider and one of two approved Digital Menu Board hardware providers alongside Acrelec Group.

While Coates Group has been providing solutions to McDonald's around the world for 50 years, this new appointment is the largest partnership engagement to date and follows an extensive, multiple-round RFP process in which several providers were evaluated.

Switchboard™ content management system is a web-based, data-driven, scalable platform created by Coates specifically for QSR environments. It’s a key component in Coates’ complete digital merchandising solution designed to create, distribute, and display digital media to generate customer engagement. Switchboard™ uses real-time data and rich analytics to orchestrate a seamless customer journey by showing the right product, to the right customer, at the right time, all while increasing revenue and driving ROI.

• On Sourceforge
• YouTube Explanation
• YouTube Leo Coates at DSE 2017
• Ton of videos on LG Supersign, Samsung and Stratacache. Very few 
• From 2021 -- LG Electronics supplies more than 4,000 high-brightness displays for use at McDonalds restaurants in Germany. The LG displays rolled out by restaurant integrator Acrelec, together with digital signage software from MDT Medientechnik GmbH.