FAST FOOD chain McDonald’s has increased exports of Irish beef to its restaurants in Europe to €110 million last year from €80 million in 2007, according to the company.

Some 40,000 tonnes of beef are exported to McDonald’s restaurants every year, while 5,000 tonnes or €6.5 million worth of Irish beef are used in Ireland, according to John Atherton, managing director of McDonald’s Restaurants of Ireland.

The company, which holds the franchise licence for Ireland, hosted a meeting of franchisees from McDonald’s restaurants in France last year, which led to extra orders of Irish beef, he said.

“It is helpful for those companies that are supplying to us,” Mr Atherton added. The biggest beneficiaries of the increase in exports were meat processors Kepak in Co Meath and Dawn Meats in Co Waterford, he said.

The company said that McDonald’s Europe was the single largest purchaser of Irish beef, with one in every five burgers sold in the European chain being of Irish origin.

Some 1,200 restaurants in the UK accounted for most of the Irish exports, followed by France and the Nordic countries.

McDonald’s employs 3,850 staff in 77 restaurants in Ireland, which includes the 66 restaurants owned and operated by franchisees.

Sales at the company were up slightly to about €200 million in 2010, Mr Atherton said. “People were spending less but we were getting more people in through the doors.”

A range of coffee drinks and a new breakfast menu had also helped in increasing sales across the restaurants.

McDonald’s will open four restaurants in Ireland this year, creating 250 jobs. The first to open will be in Cashel, Co Tipperary, followed by another in Liffey Valley.

The company is also planning to open restaurants in Ballymun and Balbriggan, Co Dublin.