The McDonalds Franchise has over 32,000 stores to date, making it the largest hamburger chain in the world.

Looking to capitalise on it’s current position McDonalds Corp. is looking to add an additional 1,000 new stores worldwide in 2010. McDonalds executives said, in a meeting with corporate investors on Thursday, the franchise giant would focus new store growth in USA, France, Germany, Russia, china and also here in Australia.

More specifically, McDonald’s has plans for 150 new stores in the United States  as well as  260new McDonald Franchises in Europe; 490 across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia; 80 in Latin America; and 20 in Canada.

McDonalds executives are hoping the effort will drive sales growth up by 5% and income up by 7%.

As well as adding an additional 1,000 new stores to the books, McDonalds is planning to refurbish a further 2,300 existing stores, with a dual cost of about $2.4 billion. It looks like there will be an increase in McDonalds careers available in 2010.