A FINANCIAL ANALYSIS OF WENDY'S INTERNATIONAL USING MCDONALD'S CORPORATION AS A BENCHMARK
A financial analysis of Wendy's International Corporation was performed. The results of this analysis are summarized in this section, and the complete results of the analysis are presented in a series of appendices. The McDonald's Corporation, the industry leader in the fast food segment of the restaurant industry, was used as the benchmark firm for purposes of a comparative analysis of Wendy's performance in 1998.
Wendy's, at the close of 1998, was in a strong financial position, as indicated in Appendix A-2. The corporation made better use of its assets in 1998 as compared with 1997 by reducing the proportion of assets held in a current status. As will be explained later in this executive summary, the reduction in the proportion of assets held in a current status did not harm the corporation's liquidity position. Debt increased in 1998; however, debt levels at Wendy's remained modest.
When compared with McDonald's (refer to Appendix A-5), Wendy's tends to hold a much higher proportion of assets in current status than does McDonald's. The major difference between the two corporations in this context is the proportion of assets at McDonald's that are fixed (property and equipment).
With respect to debt, Wendy's relies to a lesser extent on the use of debt than does McDonald's. As a consequence, Wendy's financial position is characterized by a stronger equity position than is McDonald's.
Wendy's income performance, while strong, is substantially inferior to that of McDonald's. The major difference involves activities other than sales and cost of goods sold, as gross income for the two corporations is comparable as a proportion of revenues (refer to Appendices A-6 through A-9). Operating costs at Wendy's are proportionally 1.61 times as high as they are at McDonald's (refer to Appendix A-10). It is in this area more than any...