CHAIN TRYING TO SHAKE SLUMP : MCDONALD'S MOVES U.S. EXECUTIVE.

Byline: Cliff Edwards Associated Press 

McDonald's Corp. on Tuesday named a new boss for its U.S. operations in a shake-up that comes amid sluggish sales at the nation's biggest fast-food chain.

Jack Greenberg, the company's vice chairman and chief financial officer, becomes chairman of McDonald's domestic restaurants.

Edward Rensi, McDonald's USA president and chief executive - who previously headed U.S. restaurants - now reports to Greenberg.

Some analysts said the move indicates that Chairman Michael Quinlan is unhappy that McDonald's has seen a series of declines in domestic restaurants open at least a year.

Sales at stores open at least 12 months have fallen for five consecutive quarters, while McDonald's two biggest competitors - Burger King and Wendy's - have seen strong increases.

``It's clear that they did want to put some new blood at the top of the domestic ranks,'' said Wayne Daniels at Schroder Wertheim. ``I think maybe in Quinlan's mind it's taken a little too long for McDonald's to get around to responding to the decline in sales.''

The recently introduced line of Deluxe sandwiches, which took two years to come to market, has not immediately reversed the sales trend.

``This doesn't mean the Deluxe line has been the dismal failure that others believe,'' said analyst Janice Meyer at Prudential Securities Research. ``I think it is basically meeting expectations, but other parts of the business have weakened more than expectations.

``The kids business has been weakened by Burger King, and their core hamburger customers have been chipped away by some of Wendy's new sandwiches,'' she said.

Rensi declined recently to discuss third-quarter expectations. Most analysts expect a continued decline in U.S. same-store sales when the company reports its earnings next week.