McDonald’s Japan managed to swing to a small first-half operating profit, helped as sales staged a long-awaited rebound after slumping in the previous two years on a series of food safety scandals.
The Japan unit of McDonald’s Corp (MCD) reported an operating profit of 47 million yen ($460,000) for January-June, compared with a 18.3 billion yen loss for the same period a year ago.
Revenue climbed 23% to 104.9 billion yen.
See also: A Boston Burger Chain Is Accusing Chipotle of Stealing Its Name and Logo
The company’s stock surged last month after it said its 3,000 outlets in Japan would host battles between Pokemon characters in the mobile Pokemon GO game but the shares have since given up most of those gains.
McDonald’s Japan maintained its forecast for a full-year operating profit of 3.3 billion yen.
Any bump-up in revenue from Pokemon GO is not expected to be evident until the company reports for the current quarter ending on Sept 30.
