Who is the creator of McDonald's? The history of the creation of the McDonald's company. Events, facts from the life of the company

Remember, we read and argued about? Let's look at the very first establishment under this sign in the world.

The very first establishment of the brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opened in 1940 in the Californian town of San Bernardino. It was an ordinary cafe for motorists. It brought them about $200,000 a year, but Richard and Maurice were constantly looking for ways to improve it. The very first restaurant was called “McDonald’s Famous Barbeque” and offered its visitors about forty types of fried meat.

In the photo above you can see exactly the original restaurant in its original form.

When in 1948 the brothers realized that their main income came from selling hamburgers, a brilliant idea came to their minds. It was a risky step, but they decided to do it and converted the restaurant’s interior into a hamburger production line. The menu also changed, now it included several types of hamburgers, orange juice and chips, and a year later the menu was replenished with French fries and, beloved by all of America, Coca-Cola. A limited menu and fast conveyor service allowed the price of hamburgers to be reduced to 15 cents, which was much lower than what other establishments in the city offered. The sandwiches sold out with a bang!

They were the first in the world to introduce a completely new concept of fast food, based on fast service, low prices and high sales volume. They introduced self-service in the hall and remodeled the kitchen, changing equipment with the expectation of mass production and greater speed of preparation of portions. This sharply reduced the prices of hamburgers, which formed the basis of their range.

Word of their success quickly spread, and after an article about their restaurant was published in American Restaurant Magazine in 1952, they began receiving 300 inquiries a month from all over the country. Their first licensee was Neil Fox, and the brothers decided that his drive-in restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona, would be a prototype for the chain they wanted to create. The building, clad in red and white tiles, with a sloped roof and golden arches on the sides, became the model for the first wave of McDonald's restaurants to appear in the country, and a permanent symbol of the industry.

Crawling around their tennis court, the McDonald brothers chalked out an assembly line-style kitchen design that was twice the size of their first restaurant's kitchen. By studying the movement of workers during the cooking process, they were able to arrange equipment most efficiently. The rain washed away the chalk, and the brothers had to redo everything again, improving the design. They could not have dreamed of such success for their business in San Bernardino, but the potential of the franchising concept, of which they were pioneers, was far from being fully exploited.

For just a thousand dollars, licensees received the name "McDonald's", a fundamental description of the high-speed service system, and could, within one to two weeks, use the services of Art Bender, the brothers' first employee at the counter at the new restaurant, who helped the licensees get started. But in 1954, a traveling salesman selling milkshake machines, Ray Kroc, saw with his own eyes the McDonald brothers restaurant. The quick service restaurant industry was ready to take off.

In 1955, the McDonald brothers submitted licenses that would allow them to open a chain of fast food restaurants in neighboring cities. The list of cities where it planned to open branches included Phoenix, Arizona and Downey. Downey is still home to one of the very first restaurants. When it came to opening a chain of restaurants across America, the brothers took on Ray Kroc, who sold machines that made milkshakes, as partners. McDonald's became a corporation in April 1955. The first restaurant, which was opened by McDonald's, was called Original McDonald's, and it was from here that the story of success and popularity of the world-famous chain began. Coca-Cola has been a partner of McDonald's, one might say, since its founding.

Exterior of the first store in Des Plaines, Illinois.

Ray Kroc was 52 years old. At this age, many people are thinking about retirement. And Kroc founded the company that became the McDonald's we know today. Kroc, who dropped out of school at age 15 to work as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross during World War I, was a dreamer...a traveling salesman who was constantly looking for a final product to sell. He started out selling paper cups to street vendors in Chicago, dabbled in real estate in Florida, and finally built a nice business as the exclusive distributor of Multimixers. It was the Multimixers that first brought him to the McDonald Brothers hamburger restaurant in San Bernardino, California. After all, if he could discover the secret of how they were able to sell 20,000 cocktails a month, how many more cars could he sell them? But when Kroc showed up at the brothers' restaurant one morning in 1954 and saw a fast-moving line of customers buying whole bags of burgers and fries, he had one single thought: “This system will work everywhere. Everywhere!"

The McDonald brothers did not want to personally oversee the expansion of their concept throughout the country, so Ray Kroc became their exclusive franchising agent. The great traveling salesman had found his final product. On March 2, 1955, Kroc founded a new franchise company called McDonald's System, Inc. On April 15, 1955, his McDonald's restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, with the help of Art Bender, who provided diners with the first McDonald Brothers hamburger and now Ray Kroc's first McDonald's hamburger. Bender then opened Kroc's first licensed McDonald's restaurant in Fresno, California, and retired as the owner of seven restaurants.

Photo from 1955, this is Ray Kroc's first restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.

Soon after their new restaurant opened, it became obvious that they had hit the nail on the head and that it was exactly what the Americans wanted. The restaurant's name quickly spread among drivers, and its red-and-white tiled building with a sloped roof and golden arches on the sides began to attract more and more customers.

But Kroc knew that to continue to grow, he needed to buy the business from the McDonald brothers to remove the contractual restrictions under which he operated. Despite the successful operation of the restaurants, Kroc's company's net profit in 1960 was only $77,000, and its long-term debts were $5.7 million. The brothers asked for $2.7 million in cash, with $700,000 going to taxes, leaving them with $1 million each. A reasonable price for the time, the brothers thought, for inventing the fast food industry. In 1961, Kroc managed to obtain a loan against the company's real estate. And although it ultimately cost him $14 million to pay off the loan, he bought control over his growing system.

McDonald's team in Des Plaines.

That same year, in the basement of a restaurant in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, he opened Hamburger University, a training class for new licensees and restaurant managers, which grew into an international training center for senior management using advanced training methods.

Milestones of growth in the United States included turnover, number of restaurants, number of hamburgers sold, and the establishment of standards of quality, service culture, cleanliness and availability (QC&A) previously unknown in the fast food industry. By 1963 we were selling one million hamburgers a day, Ray Kroc sold the billionth hamburger to Art Linkletter during a television show.

The first national meeting of restaurant licensees was held in Hollywood, Florida in 1965 to commemorate the chain's tenth anniversary. And in the same year, McDonald's became a joint stock company, putting its shares on public sale at a price of $22.5. Within weeks, stock prices soared to $49 per share.

For Ray Kroc, years without a paycheck paid off. The first shares he sold were worth $3 million, and the remaining shares he held were worth $32 million. Even June Martino, Kroc's longtime partner and secretary at Multimixer, shared in his success, selling $300,000 worth of stock and keeping an additional $5 million in stock. A year later, on July 5, 1966, McDonald's was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a major achievement for the hamburger chain. In 1967, the price of a hamburger at McDonald's increased from 15 to 18 cents, the first increase since the McDonald brothers set the price at 15 cents two decades ago. And the next year, the thousandth restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, not far from Kroc's first restaurant.

Ray Kroc has maintained the principles laid down by the McDonald brothers: a limited but high-quality menu, an assembly-line portion system and fast and friendly service, while adding the highest standards of cleanliness. The quality of food, accessibility, service culture and cleanliness to this day remain the main principles of the McDonald's fast food restaurant chain, which have won success all over the world.

By 1970, nearly 16,000 McDonald's restaurants in all 50 states and four countries outside the United States had sales of $587 million. That same year, a restaurant in Bloomington, Minnesota became the first to achieve $1 million in annual sales, and a restaurant in Waikiki, Hawaii, became the first to serve breakfast. The following year, the first McTown opened in Chula Vista, California. McDonald's surpassed the billion-dollar sales mark in 1972 and split its stock for the fifth time, turning the original 1965 stock of 100 shares into 1,836 shares.

In 1975, the first McAuto restaurant opened in Sierra Vista, Arizona. This new service system now accounts for almost half of the turnover of all McDonald's restaurants in the United States. That same year, the company's 3,076 restaurants operating in 20 countries generated $2.5 billion in sales. The following year, the 20 billionth hamburger was sold.

Exterior of the first fast food restaurant with its neon arches, 1955

In 1977, Ray Kroc was named senior chairman of McDonald's, and Fred Turner, a grill man at Kroc's first restaurant, was named chairman of the board. That same year, more than 1,000 restaurants had sales exceeding $1 million, and 11 restaurants exceeded the $2 million mark. By the time of the Silver Anniversary in 1980, 6,263 restaurants in 27 countries were generating sales of $6.2 billion and more than 35 billion hamburgers had been sold. On January 14, 1984, Ray Kroc died, fulfilling his McDonald's dreams. That same year, his company's sales exceeded $10 billion, 50 billion hamburgers were sold, and there were 8,300 restaurants in 36 countries. A McDonald's restaurant opened every 17 hours worldwide, and the average restaurant generated annual sales of $1,264,000. By 1990, trade turnover had increased to $18.7 billion, and the number of hamburgers sold exceeded 80 billion. 11,800 McDonald's restaurants operated in 54 countries.

And in 1990, the company's leadership changed for only the third time in its history: Fred Turner became Senior Chairman, passing the baton to Mike Quinlan, named chairman and senior executive, who began working at McDonald's part-time in 1963 as a sorting clerk. mail.

Fred Turner and Ray Kroc are considering a future restaurant project

As a testament to its systematic and consistent performance over many years, McDonald's has been the only company in the Standard & Poor 500 to report 100 consecutive quarters of year-over-year growth in revenue, earnings, and earnings per share since 1965. It's no surprise that Better Investing Magazine named McDonald's the most popular company and its common stock the most widely held... And Life magazine named Ray Kroc one of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century.

The site of the first McDonald's restaurant, San Bernardino, California

Ray Kroc's dreams of growing the company in the United States were fully realized, but the story was just beginning. McDonald's began to conquer the world. While experts were surprised at the rapid development of the hamburger chain in the United States, our company was preparing another surprise for them in the form of expanding the system outside the United States.

The first restaurant outside the United States was in Canada on June 1, 1967, and the race was on. Today there are over 1,000 restaurants in Canada. When McDonald's Canada introduced pizza to its menu in 1992, they overnight became the largest retail chain selling this dish.

First ever McDrive held in Sierra Vista, Arizona

On April 29, 1988, an agreement was signed in Moscow on the creation of a joint venture between the Canadian company McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Limited and the Main Directorate of Public Catering of the Moscow City Executive Committee - Moscow-McDonald's.

The authorized capital of the future joint venture was 14.952 million rubles.

It was planned that the total number of McDonald's catering establishments in Moscow would be increased to 20.

In 1988, Moscow newspapers reported that the first Moscow McDonald's would hire students and schoolchildren, most of them on a part-time basis. “Given the intensive work, the pay will be high - two to two and a half rubles per hour,” newspapers of those years wrote.

On May 3, 1989, construction began on the first McDonald's restaurant on Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow, and on January 31, 1990, it opened.

At dawn on January 31, 1990, over 5 thousand people gathered in front of the restaurant, waiting for the opening. On the first day of operation, the McDonald's restaurant on Pushkin Square served more than 30 thousand visitors, setting a world record for the first working day in the history of McDonald's. Previously, the world record belonged to a Budapest restaurant - 9 thousand 100 visitors

The first fast food establishment had 700-900 seats inside the building and another 200 in the summer outdoor area.

In 1990, a hamburger cost 1.5 rubles, and a Big Mac cost 3.75 rubles, with the average salary of a Soviet person being 150 rubles. For comparison: a monthly bus pass cost 3 rubles.

The second and third restaurants of the chain opened in 1993 on Old Arbat and Gorky Street (now Tverskaya Street).

The first restaurant outside the capital was opened in St. Petersburg in 1996.

Also in 1996, McDonald's launched Russia's first concept of serving visitors in cars - MakAvto, which works on the principle of several windows, which allows you to order and receive products while in your car.

In 1992, the McComplex was opened for the production of semi-finished products for a chain of restaurants, producing about 70 million kilograms of products per year.

Today there are 218 McDonald's restaurants in Russia, which serve more than 600 thousand visitors daily.

In 1971, the first restaurants were also opened in Germany and Australia. Today there are over 600 restaurants in Germany, and about 635 in Australia. In France and England, the first restaurants appeared in the early 1970s; currently there are 625 enterprises in France, and more than 700 in England.

Here is the oldest McDonald's in Downey, California. The restaurant has remained virtually unchanged since it opened in 1953

Richard McDonald opens the first McDonald's Bar-B-Que in San Bernardino at the intersection of 14th and East streets, where it is still located.

The McDonald brothers decided to renovate their cafe and change the menu, which from now on contains only nine dishes. The main dish on the menu was a 15-cent hamburger, with which, for just 5 cents, visitors could get a huge glass of orange juice.

McDonald's introduces its famous French fries, which become a bestseller.

Ray Kroc visits McDonald's and becomes partners with Richard and Maurice (also known as Dick and Mac). Soon Rey is already an official franchise agent. He introduces a milkshake to the restaurant's menu.

A second McDonald's is opening in Des Plaines, Illinois, thanks in large part to Ray Kroc. On the day the restaurant opened, its revenue was $366.12. Over the next decade, more than 700 McDonald's will open.

23 years after the opening of the first restaurant, the 500th McDonald's opens in Toledo, Ohio.

In 1965, McDonald became a formal corporation by publicly selling its shares at $22.50 per share. The initial sale of shares took place on the 10th anniversary of the opening of the network.

1963
Ronald McDonald entered the business; the net profit of the McDonald's chain exceeded $1 million.

With the opening of the first McDonald's restaurants in Canada and Puerto Rico, McDonald's became an international chain. This process has continued continuously since then, ultimately leading to McDonald's branches being opened today in 118 different countries.

The famous Big Mac appears at McDonald's.

In addition to the lunch menu, McDonald's also offers breakfast, which includes sandwiches and an egg called McMuffin. The Egg McMuffin was invented by Herb Peterson, a McDonald's manager in Santa Barbara, California.

McDonald's is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

In an effort to please customers who care about their figure and health, fresh salads appeared on the McDonald's menu on May 15, 1987.

Opening of the first McDonald's in the USSR and Russia on Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow. At that time, it was the largest of all the restaurants in this chain, which broke the record of the McDonald's chain, serving 30 thousand visitors on the opening day.

McDonald's launches a website, McDonalds.com.

In 2005, McDonald celebrated its 50th anniversary of opening its first restaurant.

McDonald's introduced a snack (snack) to the menu, adding a sandwich to lunch.

As part of its competition with cafes and bistros, McDonald's is launching a line of lattes and cappuccinos in restaurants - McCafe, which also includes freshly squeezed fruit cocktails and Frappes.

McDonalds Museum in Des Plaines, Illinois

The museum of this king of fast food is located in San Bernardino, here you can see a mini-replica of the corporation's first restaurant with original equipment, which includes Ray Kroc cocktail machines. Very interesting exhibits are the uniforms of the employees, which were changed several times over the long years of operation of the network. And of course, there are a lot of old advertisements, photographs and a video library, from which you can trace the history of the development of the restaurant chain.

sources
http://mcdpopculture.blogspot.com
http://lifeglobe.net
http://kervansaraymarmaris.com
http://www.vmireinteresnogo.com
http://ria.ru
http://makdak2004.narod.ru/item4.html

And along the way I’ll remind you what it looks like, and also amazing The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -

Brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald didn't initially think about going into the restaurant business. They worked as decorators at a film studio until they bought their own cinema hall. Things weren't going well, and the movie was over. The brothers opened a roadside diner for truck drivers.

The small restaurant of the McDonald brothers in the city of San Bernardino (California) was an unremarkable establishment in the 40s of the 20th century. The restaurant brought its owners a good profit - about 200 thousand dollars a year, and this suited them quite well.

The situation changed for the worse when the country began to experience difficult times. Changes were needed. McDonald's decided to radically remake its customer service system. The bottom line was that the restaurant was switched to almost self-service - the client received his order at a metal counter, and then he himself looked for a free table.

In addition, McDonald's reduced the assortment, leaving only 9 items, which included hamburgers, cheeseburgers, several soft drinks, pies, coffee, and chips. Later came the French fries. The owners also completely remodeled the kitchen, turning it into an assembly line of sorts. Thus, it was possible to reduce costs as much as possible and reduce the price of hamburgers by half - from 30 cents to 15. For competitors, this was a crushing blow.

Thanks to such innovations, by the mid-50s the owners began to receive a profit one and a half times greater than before - about $350,000 per year. The restaurant became popular throughout California, and newspapers even began to write about it. The McDonalds themselves were quite lazy people and were in no hurry to somehow expand their business.

This continued until the same Ray Kroc became interested in the restaurant. Kroc was a classic dreamer, dropping out of school at 15. At 52, he tried many activities, but never achieved any tangible success.

Once he was in a McDonald's restaurant and saw a long line at the counter, he realized that such a system could work anywhere. Moreover, with the price of a hamburger being 15 cents! The owners seemed not averse to expanding their business, but they simply did not want to do it. Thus, Kroc was in the right place at the right time. In 1955, the McDonald's System, Inc. franchise company opened. The cost of each franchise was $950 for 20 years of use.

The idea was not new - this is how the famous Singer sold his sewing machines. But McDonald's system promised to be more advanced. Kroc was not going to sell franchises to the first person he met, and was looking only for good restaurateurs. The franchise was sold only for the restaurant, and not for the entire state, as was the practice before. Achieving success was not at all easy. In the first year, only 18 franchises were sold - large players preferred to buy franchises for certain territories, and small players were afraid of uncertainty.

This continued until a certain journalist Sanford Agate acquired one of Kroc's franchises. A few years later, Agate managed to earn decent money and buy himself a big house. This was a clear example of the system working, and buyers became seriously interested in the idea. In 1961, Kroc decided to buy all rights to use the trademark from the McDonald brothers. They happily agreed to this proposal and set the price at $2.7 million.

Kroc didn't have that kind of money. It was necessary to look for a loan. The banks, one and all, refused, citing the fact that fast food is an unreliable type of business. Then Ray, together with the company’s financier, Harry Sonnenborn, turned to US universities with a request to provide a loan. At first a preliminary agreement was reached, but then suddenly there was an unexpected refusal.

Sonnerborn flew to New York early in the morning, without even having time to shave, to discuss the reasons for the refusal. The reasons were the same - the unreliability of fast food as a business. Then Harry uttered his now legendary phrase “…. We're in the real estate business." And he outlined the essence of the idea. And it was that McDonald's wanted to slowly acquire, along with the restaurants, the land on which they were located. The company initially leased land at a fixed price for a period of 20 years. The rent was $700 a month, which was a lot at that time.

But time passed, inflation grew, and the payment under the contract remained unchanged - $700. Already in the 60s, many land owners literally tore and tossed, as 700 dollars turned into mere pennies. An interesting point is that it was not the company that paid for the land, but the restaurateur himself, the buyer of the franchise. When purchasing a franchise, he was required to put down $10,000 as a deposit. After 10 years, half of the amount was returned to him, and after 20, the whole amount. It was these 10 thousand that made up McDonald's down payment for the land.

Soon Kroc and Sonnenborn's Franchise Estate owned more than $16 million in assets. Next, it was necessary to get a loan from a bank - not an easy task, since the company had not yet properly found its feet. Accountant Richard Jay Boylan solved the problem by making some changes to the company's reports. In this case, there were no frauds or offenses - simply Richard, who was also a lawyer, added real estate that did not yet belong to the company’s assets, and indicated this fact in a small note. And since notes of this kind are rarely read, I managed to get a loan.

Croc buys all rights and use of the trademark, and receives complete freedom of action. From there, the business continued to grow, and in 1965, the billionth hamburger was sold, creating a whole show. McDonald's issues shares at $22.50 per share. After a few weeks, their price almost doubles. Ray Kroc, who worked for almost ten years without receiving a normal income, became a millionaire. In 1996, McDonald's became the first fast food company to list on the New York Stock Exchange. Four years later, the number of restaurants reached 16,000.

In 1975, the first Mak Auto restaurant was opened. Today, they account for half of the company's income. At this time, McDonald's already owns restaurants in more than 20 countries around the world, and its turnover is $2.5 billion. In 1984, Ray Kroc dies, a man who could not boast of capital all his life, but who earned $600 million in 30 years with McDonald's.

To summarize, we can say that McDonald's today is the largest restaurant chain around the world. It employs more than 450,000 people and generates annual revenues of approximately $20 billion. Ray Kroc's dream has come true - he has truly created a company that, above all, cares about customers.

After fifty years, life is just beginning! Such a statement seems incredible, and yet it is possible. And confirmation of this is the story of a seller of paper cups and mixers, who at the age of 52 began to build an empire that has grown throughout the world. We will talk about Ray Kroc, the founder of the international fast food restaurant chain McDonald's.

It is surprising that Ray Kroc was neither the inventor of the concept of fast food, nor the founder of the first McDonald's restaurant, he was not even the author of the idea of ​​​​the legendary golden arches. The story of how the business was created seems incredible. He owes his success to his own perseverance and enterprise.

Reference: Today, the McDonald's restaurant chain consists of more than 37 thousand establishments around the world, and more than 100 billion hamburgers have been sold. More than 30 thousand people came to the opening of the first McDonald's restaurant in Moscow in January 1990.

Read how Ray Kroc was able to build a multi-billion dollar empire on someone else's idea.

Where did the “founder” start?

The future founder of the McDonald's empire, Ray (Raymond Albert) Kroc, was born in the suburbs of Chicago on October 5, 1902. His father, Louis Kroc, worked all his life at Western Union, trying to give a decent education to his children: Ray, his younger brother Bob, and sister Lauren.

However, the younger children were much more eager to learn than Ray. Education was not to his liking. In the work “McDonald's. How an empire was created,” the entrepreneur says that he did not like reading books; it seemed too boring to him. But he really loved to dream, think, and act.

“My relatives teased me as a “dreamer” - after all, even when I was in the last grades of school, I came home delighted with the plan I had come up with or the drawing I had drawn. I have never believed that dreams are a waste of energy as long as they lead to certain actions.”

Ray Kroc's biography is replete with all sorts of undertakings; the future founder worked somewhere throughout his life: in a grocery store, in a pharmacy, in his uncle's music store during his school years.

He says that "work is the meat in the hamburger of life."

He sold coffee beans, small dry goods, worked as a driver of a Red Cross ambulance, for this he had to lie and exaggerate his age.

This is interesting: Another person who hid his age at the recruiting station was a modest guy who, while other guys were walking around the city, courting girls, sat and drew pictures. His name was Walt Disney.

During his school years, Kroc was fond of baseball (later, having become the “king of fast food,” he acquired the San Diego Padres baseball club), and played the piano well thanks to the lessons his mother gave him. During his last school summer, Ray worked as a lemonade and soft drink salesman. Even then he realized that with the help of a smile you can influence people.

He saved all the money he earned and used it to open his first business with a friend - a small music goods store. Having chipped in a hundred dollars, the friends rented a small closet for $25, in which they sold exotic musical instruments and sheet music.

Ray entertained customers by playing the piano and singing his own songs. But sales were very bad, because almost no one knew about the existence of the store. A few months later they had to say goodbye to the business: the friends sold the goods to another store, divided the proceeds and closed. This was the first, but not the last fiasco in Ray Kroc's entrepreneurial activities.

He always wanted to sell something and play the piano for money, and even in his youth, Ray was an irresistible heartthrob. This explosive mix once led to him almost getting into big trouble while playing music in a club that turned out to be a brothel.

He later worked as a stockbroker for a company that later turned out to be a trading office for diluted share capital. As a result, the company went bankrupt.

Family, paper cups, mixers

At that time (in the early 20s), the Kroc family moved to New York, which was a real blow for Ray, because he already had a relationship with a girl, Ethel Fleming, with whom he was going to get married. The family eventually returned to Chicago. Ray wanted to marry Ethel, but his father forbade him, saying that he first needed to find a job, more serious than the position of a messenger or bellhop.

In 1922, Ray got a job as a sales representative for the Lily Cup company selling paper cups. There were no more objections to starting a family from the parents, and the young people got married.

The sale of cups was slow. Ray compared this business to a bear that grows fat all summer and lives off it in the winter. Sales only did well in the summer, but Kroc felt that paper cups had a lot to do with the way America was going. At the same time, he worked as a full-time musician at a radio station, where he played in the evenings after his main job. After night shifts, he went home, began to undress on the stairs, and as soon as his head touched the pillow, he was already fast asleep.

“I had great ambitions, I couldn’t idle even for a minute. I firmly decided to get rich so that I could afford to have beautiful things, and I must say that earning money from two jobs gave us this opportunity.”

In 1924, Ray and Ethel's daughter was born, and he had to work even harder. He earned $35 a week, and in 1925 he achieved his first successes: he entered into an agreement to supply large quantities of cups to the Walter Powers restaurant. There were other successful projects, and the company increased Kroc's salary as a reward for his zeal. So he was able to buy a brand new Ford.

At that time, Ray and his wife and her sister moved for a while to Miami, where he performed with an orchestra and worked as a real estate agent.

In 1930, Ray's father died of a cerebral hemorrhage. In those years, the stock market collapsed - all of Louis Kroc's assets became worthless, a blow he could not survive.

Interesting fact: Among his father's papers, yellowed by time, Ray found a phrenologist's report on the interpretation of bulges on the head of Raymond Kroc when he was four years old. The report stated that Kroc would become a chef or his life would be connected with cooking. Amazingly, the prediction came true.

Returning to Chicago, Ray continued to sell paper cups and decided to devote himself only to this business, ceasing to waste time on various part-time jobs, until the beginning of 1938, when he organized a company selling mixers. His wife did not support his initiative, and the relationship became cold.

The initial data for the new business were: a suitcase with a sample of a new multimixer, huge ambitions and an entire country in which the owners of soda stands and cocktail bars were waiting for Ray to offer them a product. This is what the newly minted businessman thought, but he was wrong.

Kroc turned into a real mobile team, which consisted of one person - himself. He traveled around the country, offered to buy mixers, rented an office, and hired a secretary. The mixer business led Ray to a mortgage on his house, $100,000 in debt, and a desperate wife.

Who invented McDonalds

In the first half of the 20th century, snack bars for car enthusiasts, the so-called drive-ins, were common in America. Their essence was that motorists drove up to the establishment in a car to order and receive an order; they did not even need to get out of their cars.

However, such a system had many disadvantages: slow service, costs for waitresses’ salaries, and dishes. The first establishment of the brothers Dick (Richard) and Mac (Maurice) McDonald was just such a restaurant.

However, its founders decided to modernize the existing system - they came up with a fundamentally different model:

• introduced a self-service system;
• orders were served in disposable paper dishes;
• the assortment was reduced to a minimum, only hamburgers, fries, drinks remained - only 9 items;
• all food preparation functions were clearly distributed among the kitchen workers.

The brothers closed the first restaurant and opened a new one using the described model. Orders were prepared almost instantly, the dishes were disposable, so you could eat anywhere: at home, in the car, on a bench in the park. The idea turned out to be very successful, the demand was huge.

By 1954, when Kroc's business had stabilized, he became interested in a small fast food restaurant located in San Bernardino, California. Ray's interest in the restaurant was sparked by the fact that the owners had purchased eight mixers. This means that they were whipping forty cocktails at the same time. It was McDonald's.

Ray Kroc and McDonald's

Arriving in San Bernardino, Ray Kroc met the McDonald brothers. They told him about the business, how everything worked, and asked if Kroc knew someone who could help them build a network. Ray was inspired by the idea and replied that he himself was such a person.

Kroc's original idea was to open a chain of McDonald's restaurants to which he could supply mixers. An agreement was signed with Mack and Dick, according to which Kroc could sell McDonald's franchises while receiving a 1.9% commission. The brothers were entitled to 1.5% of his share. True, as it turned out, permission to use the name McDonald's was given not only to Kroc, but also to a dozen other establishments in California and Arizona.

This is interesting: The first McDonald's franchises sold by Ray Kroc cost $950. Now their cost in Europe reaches 1 million dollars.

The entrepreneur liked to repeat that he does not sell hamburgers, he sells business. McDonald's restaurants began to grow by leaps and bounds across America. Kroc gathered around himself a team of professionals who helped build the business. He took risks, took out loans, mortgaged all the property he owned, entered into long-term sublease deals, and the purchase of land plots on which it was planned to build new restaurants.

In 1959, Kroc's net worth was $90,000. In 1960, the 200th restaurant opened. Despite the fact that Ray was absolutely absorbed in work, his personal life did not remain on the sidelines. He divorced Ethel, leaving her almost all his property. He took such a step for the sake of a new love - a woman named Joni (Joan) Smith, the wife of one of Ray's partners.

However, the new lover for a long time could not decide on a divorce, and Krok was not able to live alone, so he married another woman. And yet, in 1969, Ray Kroc married Joni Smith, divorcing his second wife.

In 1961, Kroc bought all rights to McDonald's from the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million. This had to be done because Dick and Mac were slowing down the development of the network. To give the money to the brothers, Ray Kroc's company had to borrow the required amount from the Bristol Group, and in return it was paid 0.5% of the gross revenue of all McDonald's restaurants. According to calculations, payments should have ended in 1991, but by 1972 they managed to fully pay off this loan.

In the early 60s, the University of Hamburger Science was founded in Illinois, where students were taught all the intricacies of working and managing McDonald's restaurants.

For his 70th birthday, Kroc donated $7.5 million to St. Jude Children's Hospital.

In 1983, McDonald's gross sales reached $9 billion per day, and in December of the same year, Esquire magazine included Ray Kroc among the 50 people who had the greatest influence on the lifestyle of Americans.

The creator of the empire took part in the business until his last days, although in recent years he moved in a wheelchair. Kroc died of a heart attack at the age of 82. At the time of his death, in 1984, his personal fortune was estimated at $0.5 billion. In 2016, the film “The Founder” was released, telling the story of how Ray Kroc built the McDonald’s empire.

Raymond Albert Kroc (Raymond Albert Kroc, years of life: October 5, 1902 - January 14, 1984 ), abbr. Ray Kroc is an American entrepreneur, founder of McDonald's, a chain of fast food restaurants. For the businessman’s contribution to the formation and development of the public catering industry, Time magazine in 1998 included him in the TOP 100 most significant people of the 20th century.

The man who personally scraped gum in his first restaurant managed to make a fortune of $500 million. Ray Kroc's biography is capable of shaming those who complain about unfavorable circumstances. His life story will tell you what ingredients make up the recipe for the “success” dish.

Each person is responsible for all his successes and failures himself.

RAY KROC'S RESUME

2018 marks the 116th anniversary of the birth of a man who proved by his example that there is no single template for a “lucky” person. Mr. Kroc hit his “big jackpot” while he was neither young nor healthy. His gall and thyroid glands were removed, and diabetes and arthritis were diagnosed in the early stages. At the same time, he described his own condition optimistically, in the spirit of the phrase “a man in the prime of his life”:

A scarred veteran, seasoned on the front lines of business, I was still eager to fight.

A modern employer, looking at Ray Kroc's resume at that time, may refuse such a candidate (“goodbye, we'll call you”). After all, at the time of the fateful decision that led to the creation of a multimillion-dollar fast food empire, Kroc was... 52 years old! Isn’t it too late to “rush into battle”?

Let's see what else could be included in the resume of this unique personality:

experience:

• music store owner
• musician at a radio station
• real estate sales manager
• traveling salesman (sales of paper cups, multimixers)

Personal qualities: good public speaking skills

It's hard to believe that this is a characteristic of a man who managed to build a national chain of fast food restaurants. To understand how his character was formed, let's start describing the history of the legendary man from the beginning.

Video: Giant queues at the first McDonald's in the USSR

Ray Kroc's childhood and youth

Raymond Albert Kroc, known by his short name Ray, was born on October 5, 1902, in Oak Park, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois. He was born into a family of immigrants; his ancestors were Czech by nationality.

Ray's father, Louis Kroc, worked for Western Union from the age of 12, and his wife Rose kept house. The Kroks family had three children: the eldest Raymond, the middle Bob and the youngest Lauren. Raymond had an age difference of 5 and 8 years with his brother and sister.

Being a passionate fan of the Chicago Tigers baseball team, the father introduced his eldest son to this sport. As a 7-year-old boy, Ray visited the old city stadium for the first time. We all come from childhood: having become rich, in 1974 Kroc acquired the San Diego Padres, a National League baseball club.

The Krokov couple were not wealthy. To earn extra income, Mrs. Kroc gave private piano lessons, so part of the housework fell on the shoulders of her eldest son. Since childhood, Ray was accustomed to work: he made beds, wiped dust, washed floors.

His grandmother simply had a mania for cleanliness: after washing the floors in the kitchen, she covered the clean surface with newspapers so that it would not get dirty. The printed pages lay on the floor until the next cleaning. Kroc, having inherited a slightly less obsession with order, would later set McDonald's a high standard of cleanliness.

Ray's dad, having completed only 8 grades, sought to give his children a complete education. But Kroc Jr. was not interested in reading or studying. Little Raymond spent a lot of time thinking, imagining different situations. "What are you doing?" – Ray’s mother asked; according to her son’s recollections, she was an affectionate and caring woman. “I’m just thinking,” was the answer. He was called a “dreamer,” but Kroc was not just “with his head in the clouds.” He, having thought everything over in advance, acted. The ability to analyze information and make his own judgments will be useful to him in adulthood:

Competitors can steal my plans, but they will never be able to read my thoughts.If so, I will always be several miles ahead of them.

From an early age, Raymond loved trading. As a schoolboy, he helped his uncle in a pharmacy, selling soft drinks (in the USA, pharmacies also functioned as small cafes; remember that the history of Coca-Cola began with its sales in pharmacies). The boy realizes that his smile can easily convince a customer who comes in for a cup of coffee to also order ice cream. “American style” - energy, the ability to shake hands, attention to detail - Ray likes it.

In middle school, the teenager works part-time in a grocery store, and in high school, he opens a music store with friends. In a closet rented for $25, the guys sell sheet music and exotic instruments. Possessing, like his mother, musical abilities, Ray plays the piano to attract visitors. And although the shop soon had to be closed, this endeavor became an excellent practical experience. The future restaurateur understands the importance of work; later he will say:

Work is the meat in the hamburger of life.

During his studies, Ray was only attracted to the discussion club; the guy liked to be the center of attention. He mastered what is now called “storytelling” - the art of telling stories and influencing an audience. Once, while discussing the dangers of smoking, the young man so colorfully described the story of his grandfather, whose only joy in his declining years was his smoking pipe, that by the end of his fiery speech his listeners had tears in their eyes.

Career ups and downs

WORLD WAR I

In 1917 America enters the First World War. 15-year-old Krok, despite the resistance of his parents, “throws in” a couple of years at the recruiting station and becomes the driver of a Red Cross ambulance van. His unit is sent to the state of Connecticut for training.

Ray meets another conscript who has overestimated his age - a 16-year-old. He constantly draws while other colleagues are chasing girls. Kroc saw a life lesson in this: his pictures will remain for centuries, and almost none of those girls are alive anymore.

The warring countries conclude a truce and, not having time to plunge into the theater of war, Ray returns to Chicago. Ray did not want to sit on the student bench, but succumbed to the persuasion of his father and mother. Having “suffered” at his desk for a semester, he quits classes and becomes a street vendor. Selling coffee and small dry goods, he sells $30 a week, quite decent for 1919, and soon earns more than his father.

BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA

Young Ray was a self-confident heartthrob, but he soon thought he had found true love. The chosen one was Ethel Fleming, and her parents agreed to the marriage with one condition: the groom must find a stable job. So young Croc becomes a paper cup salesman at Lily Cup Co. In 1922, the wedding of Ray and Ethel took place, and 2 years later the couple had a daughter, Marilyn.

In the period between the two wars, in order to feed his wife and daughter, the father of the family sells cups during the day and plays music on the piano at a radio station in the evening. In search of better income, in the mid-20s Kroc quit Lily Cup and moved to Florida. But when the local land boom subsides in 1926, the 25-year-old failed real estate agent returns to his former employer.

In 1929, Lily Cup merged with Tulip Cup, and Kroc's area of ​​responsibility expanded. He sells goods to wholesalers: pharmacy chains, stadiums. Croc bombards them with improvements that increase THEIR productivity (which ultimately affects HIS cup sales).

In the late 30s, engineer Prince invents a device for simultaneously whipping up to 5 cocktails. Kroc gets excited about the idea of ​​selling these multimixers. Having 17 years of experience and the title of “best dealer of the company”, he decides to leave a guaranteed income. His wife Ethel considered the idea, to put it mildly, adventurous, but Krok’s rule says:

If you don't like to take risks, you shouldn't get into business.

In 1939, Ray registered his own company selling mixers, Malt-A-Mixer (later Prince Castle). To increase sales, the “dreamer” again uses his imagination, coming up with cocktail recipes (for “Delakato” you will need Kahlua liqueur, cognac, ice cream).

THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Kroc's company faces bankruptcy when the United States enters World War II. The manufacture of electric mixer motors requires copper, and all of it is used for the defense industry. Kroc demonstrates entrepreneurial flexibility:

I just had to look around for other opportunities.

Kroc's career is shaped like a sine wave: the curve goes up, then down, up again - a real "roller coaster"! And although he has many unsuccessful endeavors, his ability to not give up can only be learned.

Getting to know McDonald's

MISTER MULTIMIXER

After the war, Croc sold 9,000 multimixers annually, but in the early 50s sales fell. An improved device released by market rivals displaces Kroc's favorite "brainchild". Mr. Kroc has a short conversation:

If you see your competitor drowning, take a fire hose and stick it in his mouth.

Raymond is concerned about falling mixer sales. He analyzes that the McDonald brothers have already ordered the 9th and 10th mixers for their diner, while similar establishments buy no more than two devices for whipping cocktails. Kroc's interest is fueled by phone calls from different states: customers are asking for "the same multimixer that McDonald's has installed." Ray Kroc gets behind the wheel and heads to San Bernardino, California to see for himself how the brothers do things.

“As long as you are green, you grow, but when you are ripe, you rot,” says the American proverb.

By his own admission, in 1954, Kroc was "green as St. Patrick's clover." Here begins the amazing story of the transformation of a traveling salesman into a millionaire.

15 SECONDS THAT CHANGED YOUR LIFE

The McDonald's drive-in snack bar pleasantly surprises our "clean guy": Croc doesn't notice any flies or garbage. In line at the serving window, Kroc mutters provocatively, “I’ve never stood in line for a hamburger in my life,” but the establishment’s customers praise the self-service restaurant. Traveling all over the country, the traveling salesman has truly never seen anything like this: orders are completed in 15 seconds!

The McDonald brothers, the elder Mac and the younger Dick, warmly receive “Mr. Multimixer,” as he is called among themselves. Almost every third of their clients buys a cocktail whipped on Ray's machine. They say that having opened the diner in 1940, 8 years later they reorganized it: they reduced the staff, trimmed the menu to 9 items. This made it possible to organize a conveyor belt in the kitchen, where employees perform a simple function that does not require special qualifications.

The first restaurant owned by the McDonald brothers

Children love to watch the polished actions of grillmen, cocktailmen and jarmen through the huge windows of the diner. And where the children are, the whole family is there. McDonald's target audience is married couples; The lack of waitresses, who attract fun-seekers, also contributes to this.

Krok knew how to think big:

I could tell the difference between a worthwhile idea and a dud.

He summarizes the advantages of the new organization of the food system - cleanliness, speed of service, attracting family Americans. "Mr. Multimixer" informs the brothers that their business has bright prospects for expansion! But McDonald's is not planning global expansion; the established “trouble/income” ratio suits them quite well. Now, if only they had a franchising agent who would take on this work...

Ray did not miss his chance for success; he convinces Dick and Mac to sell him the license to distribute McDonald's.

Ray Kroc and franchising

FRANCHISING AGENT

$15,000 – this is the price the brothers set for the right to “clone” their restaurant across the country. Banks gave Kroc a “turnaround” to get a loan; he mortgages his house and medical insurance. Where did he get his confidence from? One of the rules for his success is:

Turn your fear into faith.

On March 2, 1955, Kroc founded the franchising company McDonald's System Inc (after 1960 - McDonald's Corporation). At that time, dozens of businessmen were introducing franchising into the fast food industry, and all major restaurant owners were selling licenses. What exactly allowed McDonald's to reach and then surpass the national scale?

Ray didn't invent fast food - he sold it, he didn't invent franchising - he perfected it. Kroc's approach to franchising was no less revolutionary than the brothers' know-how in the food industry.

Ray Kroc near one of his franchises (1961)

In the comparison table it is easy to see the essence of these innovations:

A born salesman, Kroc put his customers' needs first. In the new enterprise, his clients were buyers of the McDonald's license, and he used his own concept as successfully as possible:

The more I help others succeed, the more successful I am.

Kroc didn’t get rich overnight; at first he had to tighten his belt: he refused his country club membership and delayed paying utilities. Profit was not his priority; his dream was to build the perfect McDonald's chain:

Never think about just making money!Love what you do and success will come to you!

In the first year, Kroc sold 18 franchises, one of the licenses went to Chicago journalist Sandy Egate. Having invested $950 in the purchase of a license and $25,000 in construction, in 1955 he opened his own McDonald's. The diner was an instant success, grossing hundreds of dollars a day, its profits vastly exceeding Kroc's own income. Eget was the first of the franchisees to go “from rags to riches” and acquired a luxurious mansion.

It’s hard to imagine a better PR company; people line up to buy a chance at wealth - a franchise. The McDonald's empire grew from individual successful franchisees. And they began to say about Kroc that he populated the United States with millionaires.

Ray Kroc's business secrets

FIRST OWN RESTAURANT

Kroc opened his own McDonald's on April 15, 1955, in Des Plaines, Illinois. It was as if he sold the franchise to himself, although the contract prohibited such a “trick.” In 13 years, the thousandth restaurant will open in this city.

Before dawn, Kroc arrived at the restaurant and, together with the cleaner, prepared it for opening. He could water the area, clean out trash cans, pick out sticky gum: “I didn’t think it was shameful to mop the floor or clean toilets, even if I was wearing a nice suit.” Hard worker? His famous “crocism” confirms this:

The sweat dividend is good luck. The more you sweat, the luckier you will be.

Not only in his restaurant did Kroc implement McDonald's standards. He traveled all over America and checked how franchisees adhered to the KKCHD formula: Quality, Service Culture, Cleanliness, Affordability. McDonald's became his life's work:

I believe in God, family and McDonald's. When I'm at work, the order is reversed.

Krok was a real “demon of cleanliness”: windows had to be washed daily, hoods and refrigerators every other day, workers were forbidden to have unkempt nails and beards. Each employee must have a cleaning cloth: “If you have time to sit down, then you have time to clean up.”

In 1958, Kroc informed the McDonalds in an audio message: “I already know of four companies selling hamburgers for 15 cents... business is being conducted there anyhow. We will be the first among the strongest."

ME AND MY YOUNG TEAM

The secret to the long-term success of the system Kroc built was that strict adherence to corporate standards did not deny the manifestation of personal abilities. A businessman could attract the right people and spot talent.

In 1956, he hired 23-year-old Fred Turner. The young guy becomes another embodiment of the “American Dream”: having started his career as a simple worker, he will grow to become the president of the corporation and chairman of the Board of Directors.

Turner remembers that Kroc could give great speeches without preparation. He talked fascinatingly about the technical details of McDonald's work, and when he explained how to bake a bun, the listeners seemed to see it in reality! Even his enemies admitted that Ray Kroc could perfectly:

• sell hamburgers
• Earn Money
• tell stories.

In 1961, brothers Dick and Mac agreed to sell their entire brand to Kroc for $2.7 million (a million each, the rest in taxes). He didn’t have that kind of money, and banks refused to lend, not considering the chain of cheap restaurants seriously.

Accountant Richard Boylan managed to help Kroc. Boylan listed rented buildings and land as the company’s “assets,” and the projected increase in real estate prices as “income.” Simple calculations, prohibited by American accounting rules, “increased” the company’s profits by 4 times. The accountant explained that he did not hide the facts and did not deceive anyone, but explained everything in the notes.

Note: Only people don't read notes.

It's easy to have principles when you're rich. It's much harder to afford them when you're poor.

Harry Sonneborn, the company's chief financier, took over and found creditors. The universities lent the required $2.7 million because the financier explained to them that McDonald's was not in the business of burgers, but in real estate. Lenders received a percentage of the income (equal to what the brothers previously took), and Kroc received freedom to manage the brand.

It was Sonneborn who developed a profitable sublease scheme that allows him to control the real estate sector. The company bought or rented real estate (land plots and restaurant buildings) for a fixed amount, and then subleased it to franchisees, who then paid a percentage of sales.

These examples show that Ray Kroc was able to assemble an excellent team of professionals that he valued:

None of us individually are as good as all of us together.

Despite Kroc’s merits, he also had his own “peculiarities”: the manager liked to throw around the word “fire”. The reason could be any trifle; once he ordered to pay off an employee who asked to borrow a dollar in order to pay for parking a car. According to the boss, a serious person should take care of the availability of small money in advance. However, they still didn’t cut me off for something like that.

SANTA CLAUS'S RIVAL

Kroc understood perfectly well that the costs of stimulating demand would pay off handsomely. All outstanding businessmen understand the importance of advertising, one of the marketing components: (who gave 3 out of 4 $ on advertising), (who advertises his product in the nude), (who shocks in advertising with obscene words).

The McDonald's brand, whose prosperity was founded by Croc, entered the TOP 10 brands in the world (9th place according to Forbes for 2017).

ITS UNIVERSITIES

A man who never graduated from a university founded his own. But not ordinary.

Kroc's quote reads:

We have too many bachelors, but too few grocers.

In 1961, the world's first corporate catering university, the Hamburger University, opened in Illionois. The McDonalds' Hamburger University teaches modern management and company standards.

Who currently has never heard of McDonald's? Such people simply do not exist. After all, this chain of fast food restaurants is very popular and is part of the American lifestyle. It's no secret that the history of McDonald's originates in the United States. This is now a huge number of restaurants all over the world. According to this indicator, the fast food chain is second only to Subway. Lee Iacocca, who was the president of Ford, regretted that at one time (1955) he did not buy the McDonald's trademark. Then he was ahead of Ray Kroc, whose name is associated with the stunning success of the brand. Many people still think that the MacDonald brothers developed this empire. In this article we will dispel doubts, and you will learn the real history of the creation of McDonald's.

Start. Route

Everyone knows that in the middle of the 20th century, an economic crisis hit America. Roosevelt, who was the President of the United States at that time, decided to start many small construction projects. Plus, he began the construction of a huge number of highways. After everything was ready, private entrepreneurs took their places, opened gas stations, service stations, supermarkets, etc.

Dick and Mac McDonald thought something was missing. The history of McDonald's begins in 1940, when, through the efforts of two brothers, a small eatery was opened in the small town of San Bernardino. Here, as usual, they sold salads, wings, barbecue - nothing special. And the income was quite standard - about 200 thousand dollars a year. Almost every restaurant of this type earned this money.

First success

For the McDonald brothers, this income was already considered a great success, and they began to think about improving the eatery. The discussion revealed three success factors: quality, prices and service. It’s worth noting that the restaurant wasn’t already expensive, but it became half the price at Dick’s insistence. So, a regular hamburger could be bought for 15 cents.

The history of the founding of McDonald's as a fast food establishment was formed at that time. The brothers set a goal - to serve as quickly as possible, but without compromising on quality. They created a new menu including a hamburger, cheeseburger, milk, pie and coffee. They stopped making wings and barbecue and left it to competitors.

The speed of service increased, but this was not enough. Then Dick and Mac decided to completely remodel the kitchen. They made production lines and formed a conveyor belt.

Briefly about the history of the creation of McDonald's - in 1948, a renovated restaurant opened, at the door of which there was a line of 150 people.

Tennis court

The success of the brothers was obvious; now their annual revenue was estimated at 350 thousand dollars. The restaurant on San Bernardino was also open, with people queuing to try the quickly prepared food.

While their competitors were jealous, Dick and Mac spent all their free time on the tennis court. They didn't play, but drew. With chalk in their hands, the brothers crawled across the field, trying to draw the perfect plan for the kitchen. After some time, they completed their work and invited experienced chefs. They had to run around this kitchen, simulating real cooking. After making some changes, this plan was put into effect. The success was stunning. The chefs cooked so quickly that the capacity of the establishment and, accordingly, revenue increased.

The brothers became real celebrities. Many companies wanted to cooperate with them. We received 300 offers per month from all over the world. The first branch was opened in Phoenix, Arizona. It was called Neil Fox. Above the entrance to the building hung the letter “M”, with which McDonald’s is now commonly associated. This is where the list of achievements of Brothers Dick and Mac can end. The McDonald's story has a new hero.

Raymond Kroc

The man who created McDonald's in the modern sense was born in 1902, on May 10th. At the age of 15, Ray Kroc, having forged documents, joined the army, and upon arrival went into business. At that time, it was possible to achieve success without having a large start-up capital behind you.

At first he was engaged in the sale of paper cups and other cutlery. Then he became obsessed with the idea of ​​selling mixers. Raymond Kroc traveled all over America selling cocktail shakers. He liked doing it so much that he bought a license to sell the product.

He worked as a traveling agent for 30 years and visited hundreds of different establishments selling his mixers. This man had enormous experience, and on top of that, he had brilliant ideas more than once. His life changed after one unusual order. The owners of one small restaurant asked Raymond to bring 8 mixers. He immediately showed interest because he couldn’t figure out why it was necessary to make 40 cocktails at the same time. Croc arrives in a provincial town and meets with brothers Dick and Mack. This is where the history of McDonald's development begins.

Crucial moment

The McDonald brothers were doing well: there were a lot of clients and, accordingly, profits too. Then they met Kroc, who was 51 years old at the time. Having learned about this establishment, he was inspired by the idea of ​​expanding the business and wanted to increase the number of such restaurants significantly.

The company where Raymond Kroc worked was going through hard times, and his potential demanded more. The McDonald brothers gave up their name for temporary use to Kroc for $950 and were right.

April 15, 1955 - Raymond's first restaurant opened in the city of Des Plaines. The McDonald's success story has begun. A manager with extensive experience, Kroc develops his own ideology, which is the slogan: “quality, service, cleanliness and prices.” These words turned into a spell that Ray and all his subordinates repeated all the time. It is worth noting that he knew everyone by sight and paid them $100 a month.

Five years later, the McDonald's company consisted of two hundred fast food restaurants. In all the cities in which the diner opened, there was the same approved menu. The customer should know that they will be given the same hamburger, the same size, regardless of location. Kroc was very sensitive to his “brainchild” and toured the McDonald’s empire’s eateries to personally ensure that all instructions were followed.

Hard time

The history of the creation and development of McDonald's is not as smooth as everyone used to think. Even this market giant has had difficult times. Branches opened at breakneck speed, eateries were in demand, but profits did not want to grow. There was not enough money even to pay salaries to managers. Kroc promised them 30% of the shares of his company, and he guaranteed 22% to insurers for repaying a loan of one and a half million dollars. It was this amount that Ray did not have enough to buy out the name of the McDonald brothers. In total they asked for $2.7 million.

In the early 60s, Kroc wanted only one thing - to buy out the company and build it himself the way he wanted. He understood that the brothers’ name was very popular and everyone knew it. Raymond Kroc was obsessed with this idea. He put everything he had on the line and collected the required amount. He even broke off relations with his wife, with whom he had been married for 39 years. Now all his energy and time were devoted to his life's work - McDonald's.

At the most difficult moment for the empire, Krok was helped by the ingenuity of one of his employees, Harry Soneborn, who proposed using land rent as the basis of the business. Nowadays it is called franchising, and it is very popular. Buying an existing business solves many problems. At that time, this became the best solution; the Kroc franchise real estate corporation was created, which became quite profitable. No one doubted the success of the company anymore.

McDonald's forever

By 1975, Raymond Kroc's fortune was estimated at $340 million, but he did not calm down. Until his death he participated in the affairs of his brainchild. The history of McDonald's is truly unique. One man, thanks to his talent and ability to work, created a company where the annual turnover is estimated at billions of dollars. Kroc believed that the reason for success was the expansion of the network. Every year he opened new restaurants, selling licenses at ridiculous prices.

In the 60s, he did a great job, created a laboratory where top managers still study. Kroc launched a large-scale advertising campaign. It was he who came up with the clown Ronald McDonald, who personified the brand. Children loved this hero along with Santa Claus and Mickey Mouse.

It is impossible to briefly tell the story of McDonald's. Kroc's contribution to the creation and development of an empire gigantic in scale is invaluable. The McDonald's brand owes its prosperity to one person, whose name everyone should know. It’s not for nothing that experts call Kroc one of the greatest managers of all time.

The first fast food restaurant in Russia

The history of the opening of McDonald's in Russia is quite interesting. In the USSR, as you know, there was a ban on Western corporations. Therefore, when the first McDonald's restaurant opened on January 31, 1990, it caused an unreal excitement. Muscovites and guests of the capital immediately liked the food, and people stood in line all day to get inside. Pushkin Square, where there was a snack bar, was simply filled with people from the very morning.

Those wishing to get into the restaurant lined up in kilometer-long queues. Eyewitnesses say that in the first months of the establishment’s operation it was impossible to get there. There was a chance if you stood in line early in the morning. Sometimes it was necessary to make several attempts a day to still get to the overseas delicacy. Now there are more than 500 restaurants in Russia, each of which receives a huge number of visitors.

Kitchen

The history of McDonald's creation is impossible to imagine without its unique cuisine. As already noted, Mac and Dick created a conveyor belt to make the food preparation process automatic. Of course, a lot has changed in so much time, not without the efforts of Raymond Kroc.

The journey to the kitchen begins from a regular warehouse where semi-finished products are stored. They are placed in a special refrigerator, in which the temperature is maintained at sub-zero temperatures at all times. Other products that do not spoil are kept in a dark room.

Drinks (Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta) are brought to the restaurant in the form of syrup, which is subsequently mixed with sparkling water. The famous French fries come already frozen. At the factory, it is cut into portioned pieces, then fried in boiling oil for a few seconds and immediately frozen. This treatment allows the potatoes to be firm and crunchy.

The kitchen itself is divided into two parts: where they prepare deep-frying and grilling, respectively. It is worth noting that burger patties are also delivered frozen. In this case, you don't even need to add oil, since there is enough fat in the meat that it won't stick to the grill.

As for seasonings, it’s very simple: pepper and salt. McDonald's does not use any other spices in preparing its dishes. The buns are caramelized in the toaster beforehand, so they don't absorb the sauce. In addition to French fries, everyone's favorite nuggets and McChicken are prepared in deep frying. It is worth noting that dishes begin to be prepared only after the order is received, so there is no need to worry about freshness.

It is impossible to name the exact number of fast food restaurants under this brand. New locations are opening daily, while old ones that did not live up to expectations are closing. The history of McDonald's says that Kroc considered expanding the chain his main task. At the moment, there are more than 35 thousand restaurants, employing almost 2 million employees.

The McDonald's company pays a huge amount of attention; its existence cannot be ignored. The brand has become a regular participant in various conspiracy theories. One of them says that this chain of restaurants was used by the American government for secret bunkers in the event of a nuclear war. Surely many people believed it.

It is an established fact that McDonald's is unhealthy. However, this does not prevent the network from growing daily. The popularity of McDonald's is increasing every day. If you do the math, 75 hamburgers are bought every second in the company's restaurants, and daily traffic exceeds 70 million.

McDonald's is discussed everywhere, articles are constantly published about it, it becomes the center of the next scandal, etc. Only one thing is clear, that this chain will exist and develop for many more years until a new Raymond Kroc appears and comes up with a new format for the establishment. fast food. I would like to note that such people are born very rarely, and the history of McDonald's is proof of this. This restaurant chain has many competitors, but they all lose in terms of popularity and quality. The McDonald brothers and Raymond Kroc managed to found a unique company that will delight us with its food for many years to come.

 

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