In order to highlight the significance of breakfast - McDonald’s is launching National Breakfast Day. 5 000 McDonald’s restaurants across South Africa, Middle East and Asia will be taking part in National Breakfast Day on Monday, 18 March in offering one thousand free egg McMuffins per store to their customers during breakfast (05:00 to 10:30). This will be on a first-come-first-served basis and while stocks last.

With so many participating restaurants, the numbers involved are considerable - potentially, this will be a free breakfast for almost six million McDonald’s customers across participating regions – and more than 177 000 satisfied customers on this one morning in South Africa alone.

“And we fully expect to serve this number,” says Sechaba Motsieloa, Corporate Affairs director of McDonald’s South Africa. “We want to demonstrate to our busy customers that we are an affordable and tasty way to start their day, especially for people on-the-go.”

Spanning 16 times zones and not forgetting that over six million eggs will be cracked on the day, National Breakfast Day is set to offer consumers the opportunity to start their day with a balanced breakfast option.

"Breakfast is a significant business for McDonald’s and an area of potential growth for South Africa. We have taken lessons from more established markets such as Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore where breakfast now accounts for 25% of total restaurant business," says Motsieloa.

Egg McMuffins are an iconic handheld breakfast – containing only 300 calories and made up of a freshly cracked egg, a smoked chicken roll and cheese between a toasted English muffin bun. Herb Peterson, a US based McDonald’s Franchisee, first introduced the Egg McMuffin to the menu in 1971, and since then the volume of all McMuffin options has risen more than 1.5 billion per annum worldwide. McDonald’s brought hand held breakfast to South Africa in 2009, evolving the way South Africans traditionally eat breakfast