Japan's Big Mac empire plummets

COLLAPSING burger sales have forced McDonald's Japan to issue a profit warning just four months after its shares started trading on the Tokyo stock market in its biggest ever flotation of a foreign company.

McDonald's slashed its profits forecast by 27% after an outbreak of mad cow disease in Japan effectively took beef off the menu after the first case was reported on 10 September.

McDonald's revealed that sales in October fell 17%, the biggest decline in its history, as the number of customers fell 14%. It warned that net income for the year to end-December would be 10.7bn yen (£61.4m) against last year's 16.8bn yen and an August forecast of 14.7bn yen.

McDonald's plans a huge ad campaign to revive sales of Big Mac and other products. The shares, launched at 4,300 yen in July, were down 2.5% at 3250.