Last Updated on May 6, 2026 by Craig Allen Keefner
Coates Group was appointed McDonald's single global Digital Menu Board (DMB) Content Management System (CMS) provider and one of two approved DMB hardware providers. This five-year agreement, announced on August 11, 2022, marks Coates Group's largest partnership with McDonald's, expanding its role significantly. The deal positions Coates Group's Switchboard™ CMS as a key component in McDonald's global digital merchandising strategy, utilizing real-time data to enhance the customer experience.
Coates McDonald’s Digital Menu Boards CMS
mcdonalds coates digital signage
Announcement by Coates Group on PRNewswire. We tend to be data driven and it would be nice to see some formal confirmation from McDonalds on exactly how this deal is structured, company owned versus franchisees, global versus country.
In Brief
- Coates calls itself “global technology company specializing in digital merchandising solutions”
- Coates announces it is now single global Digital Menu Board CMS provider
- One of two approved hardware providers though we know of others in UK and Germany
- Five year agreement
- Coates historically has been a hardware provider so this would be a big catch for them.
- Their CMS hasn’t been high profile with other customers signing on so this is a big jump
- Acrelec was founded by two former McDonald’s employees in early 2000, Jacques Mangeot and Jalel Souissi, who aimed to reimagine the customer experience through innovative self-order kiosks and drive thru technology and solutions. Acrelec counts over 80,000 installations in 80 countries.
- From other sources
- current incumbent STRATACACHE has the software deal in the US with McDonald’s.
- Stratacache uses LG displays. Coates uses Samsung. Acrelec too?
- Global versus country operations. Distinctions can matter.
- To a certain extent this deal reminds us of Ziver Birg and McDonalds kiosks. Great marketing and they ended up selling to Verifone for a nice bit of change based on a guaranteed under contract upside.
Aug 11, 2022, 13:00 ET
CHICAGO, Aug. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Coates Group, a global technology company specializing in digital merchandising solutions, was named as McDonald’s single global Digital Menu Board (DMB) Content Management System (CMS) provider and one of two approved Digital Menu Board hardware providers alongside Acrelec Group.
While Coates Group has been providing solutions to McDonald’s around the world for 50 years, this new appointment is the largest partnership engagement to date and follows an extensive, multiple-round RFP process in which several providers were evaluated.
Switchboard™ content management system is a web-based, data-driven, scalable platform created by Coates specifically for QSR environments. It’s a key component in Coates’ complete digital merchandising solution designed to create, distribute, and display digital media to generate customer engagement. Switchboard™ uses real time data and rich analytics to orchestrate a seamless customer journey by showing the right product, to the right customer, at the right time, all while increasing revenue and driving ROI.
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- On Sourceforge
