McDonald’s Largest French Fry Supplier Blames “Meal Deals” for Closing a Plant in WA

McDonald's largest french fry supplier closed one of its plants in WA. The CEO blamed the closure on "meal deals".Photo byJulee Juu/Unsplash

According to a new report by Today, McDonald's largest french fry supplier is blaming "meal deals" as the reason it was forced to shutter a plant in WA recently. According to the report, Idaho-based Lamb Weston, the largest producer of french fries for McDonald's in North America, announced a restructuring plan on October 1 which included immediately closing one of its plants in Connell.

Roughly 375 workers were laid off by the plant - which is 4% of its workforce. Lamb Weston President and CEO, Thomas Werner, released a statement saying, "Many of these promotional meal deals have consumers trading down from a medium fry to a small fry. So while we benefit from improving traffic trends, consumers trading down in serving size act as partial headwinds for our volumes".

McDonald's announced a $5 meal deal in May with four items, including a McChicken or McDouble, a four-piece McNugget, fries, and a drink.