THE WORLD’S largest hamburger chain, McDonald’s, saw pretax profits at its Irish restaurants fall 7 per cent last year as the beginnings of a retrenchment by Irish consumers meant its turnover stayed flat for the year.

McDonald’s Restaurants of Ireland made pretax profits of €14.6 million on turnover of €92.9 million in 2008, according to accounts just filed at the Companies Office. It retained profits of €11.9 million for the year, in which the cost of sales rose. This compares to profits of €12.9 million the previous year.

The company cut back on staff costs during 2008, reducing the average number of employees from 1,315 in 2007 to 1,175 last year. Staff costs fell from €23.2 million to €21 million as a result.

McDonald’s Ireland managing director John Atherton told The Irish Times earlier this year that the fast food chain was “not blowing the doors off during the recession” because lower revenues from its regulars was cancelling out the boost from rising numbers of people patronising the chain for the first time.

This week McDonald’s said US sales dipped in November.