McDonald's is offering Thais a taste of its customised burgers in a pilot project.
Petcharat Uthaisang, chief marketing officer of McThai Co, said the customised burger service at its pop-up store offers customers their own choice of toppings of fresh and real ingredients such as mushrooms, bacon and black pepper cheese.
They can now get My Burger or "do-it-yourself" burgers at McDonald's first pop-up store covering 140 square metres at CentralWorld shopping complex, which will open until Jan 24 next year.
The premium menu includes the Western-style Angus beef burger, which uses 100% imported Angus beef from Australia, and the Eastern-style Kurobuta spicy Namtok burger, which uses Kurobuta pork from standard farms.
The price of the Angus burger is 6 baht higher than the original Big Mac, while the Kurobuta version is 10 baht cheaper than a Big Mac.
Ms Petcharat said the move was a response to fierce competition in the food business, with more restaurants from around the world opening over the past few years.
Prior to Thailand, McDonald's had launched its My Burger pop-up stores in the US, Australia and Singapore, and the feedback has been positive.
The trend for quick-serve restaurants is popular with teenagers who like to hang out with friends, Ms Petcharat said.
"It's our pilot project and My Burger is a good match with their lifestyles and also helps McDonald's to access a wider group of customers," she said.
McThai Co plans to open two more pop-up stores -- one each at Siam Paragon and Robinson Sukhumvit -- by the year-end.
After building customer awareness, My Burger menus will be available at over 100 branches of McDonald's next year.
In addition, the company will spend 600 million baht to expand locally in the next five years, bringing the number of McDonald's restaurants to 400 and 800 points of sales within 2020, up from the current 217 branches and 500 points of sales.
Sales are expected to grow at a double-digit rate this year, slightly down from its earlier projection but ahead of the 6-9% growth of the overall quick-service restaurant business.