McBoost for Breakfast (EDITORS NOTE)

McDonald’s Corp., you have certainly heard by now, has retooled its operations by offering all-day breakfast.

The company began testing the concept at Southern California locations in April, and in early September announced that its breakfast menu would be available after 10:30 a.m. at all 14,000 company and franchise U.S. restaurants, starting Oct. 6.

The reaction to the initiative has been largely positive. But that wasn’t the first response from Bill and Walter Mathews. It wasn’t necessarily negative, it was just — pragmatic.

 “I have to admit, I thought it would just complicate things for a lot of people,” Bill Mathews said. “I didn’t think anybody would buy breakfast after 10:30 in the morning.”

The two brothers own and operate 37 McDonald’s restaurants through their Mathews Management Co. of Springdale. All but six of the locations are in Benton and Washington counties.

Mathews knew that in order for the restaurant’s breakfast menu to share the same kitchen as its lunch/dinner menu, modifications would need to be made.

He said his company invested a little more than $200,000 for new equipment to accommodate the conversion.

When I spoke to Mathews on the first day of the all-day breakfast, he told me that MMC’s restaurant locations had actually done a soft rollout of the all-day breakfast menu on Sept. 28.

And in one week, the company’s 37 restaurants sold more than $90,000 worth of breakfast items — after 10:30 a.m.

“When I saw that, I thought this thing is actually going to work,” Mathews said.

All-day breakfast could increase sales by as much as 2.5 percent, according to Mathews.

Adjusting procedures is not easy, but the Mathews brothers seem to agree that a bottom line boost like that will be worth some short-term complications.