McDonald's plans economy products

Fast food chain McDonald's is planning to diversify into the economy segment as it seeks to find a way out of the rising commodity prices.

The company said the rising food prices are causing concern but it hopes to avoid passing costs to the consumers.

"Our focus is really in trying to change the eating habits of people. So you will see in the next few days that we are launching something at the base. We are actually cutting prices," McDonald's India managing director (north and east) Vikram Bakshi told ET Now.

He, however, did not provide further details like price point of the planned products or their specifications.

The company is trying to adopt different strategies to cope with rising food prices, Bakshi added.

"Rising food prices are bothering us a lot. We are trying to find out what are the best ways of bringing efficiency to make sure that we don't touch menu prices at a time when consumers are already hit pretty badly," he said, without providing details.

McDonald's currently operates over 160 restaurants across the country. Earlier this year, the company had announced plans to open 180-190 restaurants in India by 2015 with an estimated investment of up to Rs 570 crore (Rs 5.70 billion).