MCDONALD'S Turnaround has begun, chief says

Shareholders will see results within 18 months, he said.
CHICAGO (AP) -- McDonald's Corp. is seeing progress in its effort to fix the troubled restaurant chain but still has "a long way to go," the company's first-year chairman and chief executive told shareholders.
James Cantalupo, the 28-year company veteran who returned from retirement to take over the top jobs in January, reiterated a pledge to improve McDonald's service and food quality and restore the fast-food giant to solid growth by 2005.
Speaking Thursday at the company's annual meeting in Oak Brook, Ill., he assured investors that their "faith and patience" would be rewarded as the company pumped more money into a stock buyback program and prepared to increase its dividend "significantly" later this year.
Confidence
Cantalupo's comments reinforced his message during his first five months on the job. He said he is confident that steps taken so far -- slowing expansion, eliminating initiatives that don't boost restaurant performance, cutting capital spending, focusing on operations, tracking individual restaurants more closely -- will result in "sustainable and profitable growth."
"All of these actions are helping revitalize our company, but we still have a long way to go," he said. "I'm confident we will get there."
The payoff, however, will take up to 18 months, and expectations are modest compared with some booming results from McDonald's past. Cantalupo is targeting annual sales growth of 3 percent to 5 percent and increases in operating income of 6 percent to 7 percent, beginning in 2005.