SHANGHAI - McDonald's Corp said on Wednesday that it plans to hire 50,000 new employees in China, as the company steps up its expansion in the country, where competition among fast-food chains is growing.

The hiring spree is five times more than the 10,000 employees McDonald's hired in China in 2009. The new round of recruitment this year will bring the company's total number of employees in the country to 120,000.

Many of the new staff members will work in 700 new stores the company plans to set up by 2013. McDonald's currently operates in more than 1,300 locations in China. Half of the proposed new branches will be drive-through outlets.

The company's planned investment in China this year will be 40 percent more than last year, said McDonald's, which has been in the country for 20 years. The company declined to disclose the value of its investment.

In addition to opening new outlets, the investment will also go to renovating existing stores and remodeling the traditional yellow-and-red decor into a more relaxed and stylish bistro design, to target younger customers, said the company.

"Our people are critical to our long-term success. McDonald's is expanding faster in China than in any other market in the world," said Kenneth Chan, chief executive officer of McDonald's (China) Co Ltd. "So this is the right time for talented individuals to join our winning team."

The 50,000 new employees will include about 1,000 university graduates for management positions - part of the company's plan to find local management talent in China.

In 2010, McDonald's launched a "Hamburger University" in China, the company's first in the country and seventh worldwide, to educate local talent before promoting them to management level.

A total of 2,000 McDonald's local employees will graduate from the university this year. The company said it will invest 250 million yuan ($38.4 million) into the university by 2015 to train more than 5,000 "future leaders".

"Local management has more knowledge on the local market and will know how to market the brand better and how to work with local regulators," said Chan. "Using local management also allows for more stability. If you just use expatriates to run your business, they will come and go. For a place like China you really need a long-term strategy because the market is so big."

In addition to training local managers, the company also plans to introduce "better-tasting and locally developed" menu items in China to target health-conscious consumers.

McDonald's expansion plan comes as other foreign players are also increasing investment in China's fast-food sector.

KFC, McDonald's archrival in China owned by Yum! Brands Inc, leads the sector in China with about 3,200 fast-food locations.

KFC's presence in China is more than double that of McDonald's, holding a 40 percent market share in the fast-food sector, compared with 16 percent for McDonald's, Bloomberg News reported citing figures from Euromonitor International, a London-based market research company.

China Daily