McDonald's real business is real estate, not burgers

McDonald's Corporation owns and leases the land on which tens of thousands of its franchise restaurants sit, making it one of the largest property companies in the world. The burgers are a mechanism to keep franchisees paying rent on premium high-traffic locations. Harry Sonneborn, McDonald's first CEO, once said: 'We are not technically in the food business. We are in the real estate business.' The company's real estate portfolio is estimated to be worth more than $30 billion.

Source: Love, McDonald's: Behind the Arches (1995)