Our Story | About Macca's | McDonald's AU 1955. Ray Kroc opens the first McDonald’s in Des Plaines, Illinois. 1957. 'Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value' (QSC&V) becomes the Company motto. 1959. A new McDonald's opens at a rate of one every five and a half days. The 100th McDonald's opens in Wisconsin. 1962. The Golden Arches™ become the company logo. 1966. Ronald McDonald makes his first national television appearance. McDonald's stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. 1968. The 1,000th restaurant opens in Des Plaines, Illinois. The Big Mac is added to the menu. 1971. McDonald's Australia opens its first restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Yagoona. 1972. The 2,000th restaurant opens in Des Plaines, Illinois. The Quarter Pounder is introduced. 1974. The first Ronald McDonald House opens in Philadelphia, USA. 1975. McDonald’s celebrates its 20th anniversary.

The Drive-Thru concept is unveiled in Oklahoma. 1978. The 5,000th restaurant opens in Fujiswawa City, Japan. The first Australian Drive-Thru store opens in Warrawong, NSW. 1981. Australia's first Ronald McDonald House opens at the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital, Camperdown NSW. 1984. Ray Kroc, McDonald's Founder and Senior Chairman, dies and Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities (RMCC) is established in his memory. 1985. Ronald McDonald House Charities becomes a registered Australian charity. 1986. The 9,000th restaurant opens in Sydney, Australia. McDonald's opens its first restaurant near the North Pole, with the address McDonald's, Santa Claus Lane, North Pole, Alaska. 1990. The world's largest McDonald's with 900 seats opens in Pushkin Square, Moscow. A McDonald's restaurant opens somewhere in the world every 14.5 hours. 1991. The 150th Ronald McDonald House opens in Paris.

McHappy Day is held for the first time in Australia, raising $375,000 for Ronald McDonald House Charities and the Variety Clubs of Australia. 1993. McDonald's becomes the second most recognised brand in the world. The world’s first McCafe opens in Melbourne, Victoria. 1999. McDonald's opens its 25,000th restaurant in Chicago, USA. McDonald’s Australia’s flagship burger 'The McOz™' arrives on the menu. 2000. McDonald's is the Official Restaurant of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, serving more than 1.2 million meals to athletes, officials and spectators. 2001. McDonald's celebrates its 30th Birthday Down Under, and the 20th birthday of Ronald McDonald House Charities in Australia. The McFamily rallies to support those affected by the 11th September events through donations of food, services and money. RMHC is named one of the top 100 charities by Worth Magazine. 2003. The 100th McCafe opens in Australia. 2004.

The Happy Meal celebrates 25 years (1979 - 2004). Nutrition labelling is introduced to packaging on McDonald’s core menu items - a Quick Service Restaurant Industry First. 2005. McDonald's celebrates its 50th Anniversary on 15 April. McDonald's Australia raised more than $715,000 for CARE Australia through its restaurants to provide immediate and long-term assistance to those affected by the Tsunami. 2007. We update the McDonalds packaging featuring 24 faces from the first ever global casting call. 2008. The packaging redesign goes a step further with the most comprehensive global redesign rolled out across the world. 2011. McDonald’s now operates in 119 countries having opened stores in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Trinidad & Tobago. Ray A. Kroc dies at 81; Built McDonald's Chain Ray A. Kroc dies at 81; Built McDonald's Chain By ERIC PACE Ray A.

Kroc, the builder of the McDonald's hamburger empire, who helped change American businiess and eating habits by deftly orchestrating the purveying of billions of small beef patties, died yesterday in San Diego. He was 81 years old and lived in La Jolla, Calif. Mr. Kroc, who also owned the San Diego Padres baseball team, died of a heart ailment at Scripps Memorial Hopsital in San Diego, a McDonald's spokesman said. At his death he was senior chairman of McDonald's. Mr. Kroc, a former piano player and salesman of paper cups and milkshake machines, built up a family fortune worth $500 million or more through his tireless, inspired tinkering with the management of the McDonald's drive-ins and restaurants, which specialize in hamburgers and other fast-food items. He was a pioneer in automating and standardizing operations in the fiercely competitive, multibillion-dollar fast-food industry. He concentrated on swiftly growing suburban areas, where family visits to the local McDonald's became something like tribal rituals.

First McDonald's in 1955 He started his first McDonald's in Chicago in 1955 and the chain now has 7,500 outlets in the United States and 31 other countries and territories. The total systemwide sales of its restaurants were more than $8 billion in 1983. Three-quarters of its outlets are run by franchise-holders. Richard G. Starmann, a vice president and spokesman, said at McDonald's headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., that 1983 was a profitable year for the company, which is the United States' largest food service organization in sales and number of outlets. What made Mr. Kroc so successful was the variety of virtuoso refinements he brought to fast-food retailing. He carefully chose the recipients of his McDonald's franchises, seeking managers who were skilled at personal relations; he relentlessly stressed quality, banning from his hamburgers such filler materials as soybeans. Mr. Kroc also made extensive, innovative use of part-time teen-age help; he struggled to keep operating costs down to make McDonald's perennially low prices possible, and he applied complex team techniques to food perparation that were reminiscent of professional football.

Influential in Sports After McDonald's had made him a major figure on the business scene, Mr. Kroc became influential in the sports world by buying the San Diego Padres for $10 million in 1974. The new and eager team owner was notably outspoken: After the Padres made three errors and a costly base-running blunder in a 1974 game against the Houston Astros, he used the San Diego Stadium public address system to tell the team's fans, "I suffer with you; I've never seen such stupid ball playing in my life." In the major leagues of American business, Mr. Kroc's career was unusual because its enormous success was so late in coming. He was in his 50's when he went into the hamburger business, making himself president of the McDonald's Corporation in 1955. In 1968 he became chairman, and he took the title of senior chairman in 1977, when McDonald's purveyed more than $3.7 billion worth of fast-food fare, outselling its archcompetitor, the Pillsbury-owned Burger King, by 4 to 1.

McDonald's shares were a Wall Street favorite in the early 70's, before the bear market took hold. They reached a peak in January 1973 of around 77; investors who bought them when first offered in the mid-1960's had seen their wealth multiply more than sixtyfold. Over the years, Mr. Kroc was repeatedly involved in controversy. The authors Max Boas and Steve Chain charged in a 1976 book, "Big Mac: The Unauthorized Story of McDonald's," that McDonald's had exploited its employees by forcing them to take lie- detector tests and by appropriating their tips. The architecture of McDonald's outlets was sometimes criticized, as was the nutritional content of the food. But one critic, the nutritionist Jean Mayer, once said, "I am nonfanatical about McDonald's; as a weekend treat, it is clean and fast." A Commanding Figure In 1972 Senator Harrison A. Williams Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, suggested that there was a link between the more than $200,000 that Mr.

Kroc had contributed to President Nixon's re-election campaign and the Nixon Administration's position on the question of teen-age wage limits, a matter of prime importance to McDonald's. And when, after a stormy stint in the baseball limelight, Mr. Kroc announced in August 1979 that he was giving up operating control of the Padres, he said, with typical crustiness, "There's a lot more future in hamburgers than in baseball. Baseball isn't baseball anymore." Mr. Kroc cut a commanding figure, his thin hair brushed straight back, his custom made blazers impeccable, his eyes constantly checking his restaurants for cleanliness. The bulky rings on his fingers glinted as he ate his hamburgers with both hands. "I guess to be an entrepreneur you have to have a large ego, enormous pride and an ability to inspire others to follow your lead," he once said. But his leadership entailed a wish that his followers be, like him, driven by an unending urge to build and to excel. "Some people reach their level of expectations pretty quickly," he once observed. "We want someone who will get totally involved in the business.

If his ambition is to reach the point where he can play golf four days a week or play gin rummy for a cent a point, instead of a tenth, we don't want him in a McDonald's restaurant." Understandably, many McDonald's executives decorated their offices with scrolls inscribed with his favorite inspirational dictum: Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. Mr. Kroc established the McDonald's headquarters in Oak Brook, a few miles from the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, where he was born Oct. 5, 1902, the son of an unsuccessful real estate man whose family came from Bohemia in what is now Czechoslovakia. Sold Milkshake Machines Ray Albert Kroc went to public schools in Oak Park, but did not graduate from high school. In World War I, like his fellow Oak Parker, Ernest Hemingway, he served as an amublance driver.

Then, after holding various jobs, he spent 17 years with the Lily Tulip Cup Company, becoming sales manager for the Middle West. But by 1941, "I felt it was time I was on my own," Mr. Kroc once recalled, and he became the exclusive sales agent for a machine that could prepare five milkshakes at a time. Then, in 1954, Mr. Kroc heard about Richard and Maurice McDonald, the owners of a fast-food emporium in San Bernadino, Calif., that was using several of his mixers. As a milkshake specialist, Mr. Kroc later explained, "I had to see what kind of an operation was making 40 at one time." "I went to see the McDonald operation," Mr. Kroc went on in a memoir published in The New York Times, and suddenly insights gained during his years in the paper-cup business and the milkshake machine business mingled fruitfully in his mind. "I can't pretend to know what it is--certainly, it's not some divine vision," he continued. "Perhaps it's a combination of your background and experience, your instincts, your dreams.

Whatever it was, I saw it in the McDonald operation, and in that moment, I suppose, I became an entrepreneur. I decided to go for broke." Franchise Is Initiated Mr. Kroc talked to the McDonald brothers about opening franchise outlets patterned on their restaurant, which sold hamburgers for 15 cents, french fries for 10 cents and milkshakes for 20 cents. Eventually, the McDonalds and Mr. Kroc worked out a deal whereby he was to give them a small percentage of the gross of his operation. In due course the first of Mr. Kroc's restaurants was opened in Des Plaines, another Chicago suburb, long famous as the site of an annual Methodist encampment. Business proved excellent, and Mr. Kroc soon set about opening other restaurants. The second and third, both in California, opened later in 1955; in five years there were 228, and in 1961 he bought out the McDonald brothers. In choosing franchise owners to manage the new outlets, Mr.

Kroc and his associates looked, as he explained it in 1971, "for somebody who's good with people, we'd rather get a salesman than an accountant or even a chef." Among the license holders they selected were a member of the House of Representatives from Virginia, a chemist, a golf professional, dentists, lawyers, advertising men and even a former Under Secretary of Labor. Stressed Grass Roots Under Mr. Kroc's persistent goading, McDonald's insisted that franchise owners run their own outlets. It also poured hundreds of millions of dollars into advertising--to the point where the head of another fast-food company said in 1978 that consumers were "so preconditioned by McDonald's advertising blanket that the hamburger would taste good even if they left the meat out." Mr. Kroc was also unremittingly intense in training his franchise owners at "Hamburger University" in Elk Grove, Ill., where a training course led to a "Bachelor of Hamburgerology with a minor in french fries." Instructors told new McDonald's owners how to clean grills, how to flip a hamburger and how to tell when one was done. "It starts turning brown around the edge." Mr.

Kroc met his wife, Joan, in a restaurant in 1956 when he and she had other spouses. They were married in 1968, and she went on to found and become the head of Operation Cork, a national program to help the families of alcoholics. It started in 1976, financed by McDonald's revenues through the Kroc Foundation. Operation Cork's activities included an $800,000 grant to the Dartmouth Medical School to frame a model curriculum for the study of alcohol misuse and alcoholism. Mr. Kroc suffered a stroke in December 1979 and soon afterward entered an alcoholism treatment center in Orange, Calif., because, he said at the time, "I am required to take medication which is incompatible with the use of alcohol." Mr. Kroc's survivors include his wife, Joan, of La Jolla; a brother, Dr. Robert Kroc of Santa Ynez, Calif.; a sister, Lorraine Groh of Lafayette, Ind.; a stepdaughter, Mrs. Linda Smith of San Diego, and four granddaughters. A memorial service is planned for Friday in Oak Brook.

Company - history A brief history of McDonald's PHOTO: The first McDonald's was built in 1940 by the McDonald brothers (Dick and Mac). 1954 Ray Kroc became the first franchisee appointed by Mac and Dick McDonald in San Bernardino, California. 1955 Ray Kroc opened his first restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois (near Chicago), and the McDonald's Corporation was created. 1957 Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value (Q.S.C. & V.) became the company motto. 1959 The 100th McDonald's opened in Chicago. PHOTO: The McDonald brothers (Dick right and Mac center) discussing plans with an executive. 1961 Ray Kroc bought all rights to the McDonald's concept from the McDonald's brothers for $2.7 million. Hamburger University opened in Elk Grove, near Chicago. 1963 The 500th student graduates from Hamburger University. Ronald McDonald made his debut. McDonald's net income exceeded $1 million. 1964 Filet-o-Fish sandwich introduced. 1965 McDonald's Corporation went public.

Per earning ratio varies from 10 to 22 during year; stock price range, 15 - 33.5. 1966 McDonald's listed on the New York stock exchange on the 7th May. 1967 The first restaurants outside of the USA opened in Canada and Puerto Rico. 1968 The Big Mac was introduced. The 1,000th restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois. 1970 McDonald's restaurant in every US state. Ray Cesca (Director of Global Purchasing of the McDonald's Corporation) has admitted that when McDonald's opened stores in Costa Rica in 1970, they were using beef from cattle raised on ex-rainforest land, deforested in the 1950's and 1960's. New countries - Virgin Islands, Costa Rica. PHOTO: The first Japanese McDonald's in Tokyo. 1971 The Egg McMuffin sandwich was test marketed in the US as McDonald's first breakfast menu item.

McDonald's Japanese President, Den Fujita, stated "the reason Japanese people are so short and have yellow skins is because they have eaten nothing but fish and rice for two thousand years"; "if we eat McDonald's hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand years we will become taller, our skin become white and our hair blonde". New countries - Japan, Holland, Australia, Germany, Panama, Guam. 1972 Assets exceeded $500 million and sales surpassed $1 billion. A new McDonald's restaurant opening every day. New countries - France, El Salvador. The 2,000th restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois. The Quarter Pounder was introduced. Ray Kroc made a $250,000 donation to the controversial 1972 presidential campaign of Richard Nixon, a donation which was perhaps a subject of investigation during the Watergate corruption scandal.

Passages in the 'Behind The Arches' book (written with McDonald's backing and assistance) state that the donation came around the very time that McDonald's franchisees were lobbying to prevent an increase in the minimum wage, and to get legislation (dubbed 'The McDonald's Bill') passed to be able to pay a sub- minimum wage to some young workers. 1973 McDonald's Golden Arches Restaurants Limited founded in UK as a joint venture partnership between the McDonald's Corporation and two businessmen; one British, one American. New country - Sweden. Egg McMuffin introduced. 1974 The 3,000th McDonald's restaurant was opened in Woolwich (south east London) in October, the first in the UK. The company admitted that NOBODY went in and later decided to target children with TV ads. The UK Head Office was sited in Hampstead, North London. Up to 1974, McDonald's employees in Puerto Rico were unionised, but the company was sold to a new franchisee. A dispute followed, closing all the stores and McDonald's pulled out of Puerto Rico. They reopened in 1980 with non-union labour.

New countries - England, Netherlands, Antilles, Guatemala. The first Ronald McDonald House opened in Philadelphia. At a San Francisco Labor Board hearing, McDonald's workers testified that lie-detectors had been used to ask about union sympathies, following which the company was threatened with legal action. PHOTO: McDonald's buildings have undergone dramatic changes from the first one opened by Kroc in 1955 (top) which is now preserved as a museum, to this ultra modern restaurant opened in 1983 in New Orleans (bottom). 1975 The company's first Drive-Thru opened in Sierra Vista, Arizona. New countries - Hong Kong, Bahamas, Nicaragua. Fred Turner becomes Chairman, Ray Kroc Senior Chairman, and Ed Schmitt becomes President. Broadcast advertising appeared in UK cinemas. 1976 McDonald's first UK TV advertisement was broadcast. 4,000th store opened in Canada. New countries - Switzerland, New Zealand. Largest restaurant opens - with 334 seats. 1977 Breakfast menu introduced, nationally in America. 1978 The 5,000th restaurant opened in Kanagawa, Japan and it made US $1 million in its first year.

Sundaes introduced in USA. In one store in Chicago (USA), a majority of McDonald's workers joined a union. The company then took legal action to stop recognition for the union unless they could get a majority in the 8 stores run by the franchisee. New country - Belgium. 1979 A 7 month strike in Dublin (Ireland) lead to recognition of the ITGWU union. In 1985, two union activists won a victory at a labour court after claiming victimisation and unfair dismissal. New countries - Brazil and Singapore. 1980 The 6,000th restaurant opened in Munich. After workers in a store in Detroit (USA) joined a union, the company organised a visit by a top baseball star, staff disco, and 'McBingo' prior to elections for union representation. First floating restaurant on a steamer in Missouri. 1,000th international restaurant opened. New countries - Spain, Denmark and Malaysia. 1982 Geoffrey Guiliano, a main Ronald McDonald actor, quit and publicly apologised, stating "I brainwashed youngsters into doing wrong. I want to say sorry to children everywhere for selling out to concerns who make millions by murdering animals".

7,000th restaurant opened in Washington DC. McDonald's were responsible for food poisoning outbreak caused by E. Coli bacteria, which affected 47 people in Oregon and Michigan, USA. Egon Ronay calls McDonald's burgers 'uninspiring'. Breakfast was introduced to the British menu. PHOTO: The $40 million 'Hamburger University'. 1983 The McDonald's Corporation became sole owners of McDonald's in the UK. The Company is named McDonald's Hamburgers Limited. Five consignments of Brazilian beef are secretly imported for McDonald's UK stores. The 100th UK restaurant opened in Market Street, Manchester. New country - Norway. Introduction of Chicken McNuggets in USA. New Hamburger University campus opens in Oak Brook, Illinois. Set in 80 wooded acres. Training is provided for every level of McDonald's management worldwide. A lodge with 154 rooms in also on the same site. In Arkansas (USA), the UFCW union, which was interested in recruiting McDonald's workers, was involved in a union dispute at a chicken processing plant supplying McDonald's. The union launched a boycott of McDonald's 'McNuggets' and picketed many of its stores.

Stan Stein (McDonald's Head of Personnel and Labour Relations) spent up to '80%' of a whole year fighting the union's campaign. 1984 James Huberty shoots 22 people dead at a McDonald's in San Diego (USA). 50 billionth hamburger sold. Ronald McDonald Children's Charities is founded in his memory to raise funds in support of child welfare. A McDonald's pamphlet which is distributed to health professionals in the UK states: "There is a considerable amount of evidence to suggest that many of the diseases which are more common in the western, affluent world - diseases such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and some forms of cancer - are related to diet. The typical western diet is relatively low in dietary fibre (roughage) and high in fat, salt and sugar." McDonald's now serves 17 million customers a day - equivalent to serving lunch to the entire population of Australia and New Zealand. If McDonald's lined up all the hamburgers sold since 1955, they would:- Circle the equator 103.75 times; Reach to the moon and back 5 times. PHOTO: Ray Kroc demonstrating his fetish for cleanliness.

1985 London Greenpeace (a radical group of civil rights and environmental campaigners, independent of Greenpeace International) launches a campaign intended to expose the reality behind the advertising mask of the fast food chains, including McDonald's. Sergio Quintana, the sales director of Coop Montecillos (the sole supplier of beef to McDonald's stores in Costa Rica since 1970), stated on camera that his company's beef was being supplied to McDonald's in the USA. 1986 Drive-Thru restaurants opened in UK at Fallowfield, Dudley, Neasden and Coventry. Four workers in Madrid who had called for union elections were sacked by McDonald's. The company was forced to reinstate the workers after the labour court ruled that the dismissals were illegal. The 200th UK restaurant opened in lpswich. PICTURE: Cover of the "What's wrong with McDonald's?" factsheet produced by London Greenpeace. McDonald's became the first UK restaurant group to introduce nutritional information, throughout the country, for the benefit of customers. London Greenpeace published a 6-sided factsheet entitled "What's Wrong With McDonald's? - Everything They Don't Want You To Know".

The first UK franchisee-operated restaurant opened in Hayes, Middlesex. The first World Day of Action Against McDonald's was held on 16th October (UN 'World Food Day'). 1987 The Attorneys General of Texas, California and New York threatened to sue McDonald's under the consumer protection laws over an advertising campaign claiming that McDonald's food is nutritious. The Attorneys General concluded that the campaign was deceptive because "McDonald's food is, as a whole, not nutritious." McDonald's is serving 20 million people a day in nearly 10,000 restaurants in 47 countries. The UK Midlands regional training centre opened in Sutton Coldfield. McDonald's started legal proceedings against the Transnationals Information Centre (an independent research and action group based in London) over a booklet they produced called "Working for Big Mac" which was highly critical of the company's employment practices. The TIC backed down lacking resources to fight the case to trial, discontinued publication and distribution of the booklet (which was pulped), and the organisation itself went bust. 1988 McDonald's sponsored the Child of Achievement Awards. CFCs ceased to be used for most of McDonald's styrofoam packaging.

300th UK restaurant opened in Dagenham, Essex. PHOTO:An ad in a German newspaper which aims to counter criticism that McDonald's is changing German restaurant traditions for the worse. 1989 Italian designer Valentino attempts in a Rome court to stop McDonald's opening near the Piazza di Spagna, complaining of "noise and disgusting odours". McDonald's is listed on the Frankfurt, Munich, Paris and Tokyo stock exchanges. The Bournemouth Advertiser (UK) is threatened with a libel action by McDonald's over an article which discussed the captive-bolt method of slaughter for cattle. The newspaper backed down and published an apology. Michael Quinlan is appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. The UK company's name was changed to McDonald's Restaurants Limited. McDonald's send undercover private investigators to infiltrate London Greenpeace over a period of 20 months. McDonald's charity for child welfare fundraising, Ronald McDonald Children's Charities, was registered. McDonald's Child of Achievement Awards were presented by UK Prime Minister Mrs Margaret Thatcher. The UK Manchester regional training centre was opened.

McDonald's stores in Philadelphia (USA) were independently surveyed and accused of having racist differential wage rates between the inner-city stores (mostly black workers) and the suburbs (mostly white workers). 1990 September - libel writs were served on five supporters of London Greenpeace, three of whom feel unable to fight the case. The McLibel Support Campaign is set up to generate solidarity and financial backing for the McLibel Defendants. McDonald's opened in Pushkin Square and Gorky Street, Moscow. McDonald's opened at a UK airport at North Terminal, Gatwick. The first Ronald McDonald House opened at Guy's Hospital, London. McDonald's Child of Achievement Awards attended by HRH The Princess of Wales. 1991 McDonald's were responsible for a serious food poisoning outbreak in Preston (UK), when several customers were hospitalised as a result of eating undercooked burgers contaminated by potentially deadly E.Coli 0157H bacteria. The 150th Ronald McDonald House opened in Paris. McDonald's opened in Beijing, China. The 400th UK restaurant (and first in Northern Ireland) is opened in Belfast.

McDonald's opens in Hampstead (North London) despite strong opposition from local residents. PHOTO: A 1950's newspaper advert. 1992 Mark Hopkins, a McDonald's worker in Manchester (UK), was fatally electrocuted on touching a 'fat filtering unit' in the 'wash-up' area of the store. The manager of a Newcastle store (UK) was jailed for 6 months for inducing a crew member to phone through a hoax bomb threat to nearby Burger King in order to boost sales at McDonald's. McDonald's Child of Achievement Awards attended by UK Prime Minister John Major. McDonald's opened in a railway station at Liverpool Street, London. A UK Health & Safety Executive report made 23 recommendations for improvements in the safety of employees. One of its conclusions was "The application of McDonald's hustle policy [ie. getting staff to work at speed] in many restaurants was, in effect, putting the service of the customer before the safety of employees." Visitors to Salisbury Cathedral (UK) are offered two burgers for the price of one if they buy a commemorative parchment scroll. The idea is dropped when the bishop gets back from holiday. First restaurant in a European hospital opened at Guy's Hospital, London.

1993 The first McDonald's at sea opened aboard the Silja Europa, the world's largest ferry sailing between Stockholm and Helsinki. The Paris planning authorities refuse permission for a McDonald's under the Eiffel Tower. The second Ronald McDonald House opened at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool. 500th UK restaurant opened in Notting Hill Gate, London. First UK operated restaurant on a ship opened on the Stena Sealink ferry "Fantasia" sailing between Dover and Calais. McDonald's sponsored athletics in the UK through the McDonald's Young Athletes' League and the International invitational meeting the McDonald's Games. 1994 McLibel Trial starts on 28th June. Restaurants opened in Bahrain, Bulgaria, Egypt, Kuwait, Latvia, Oman, New Caledonia, Trinidad and United Arab Emirates, bringing the total to over 15,000 in 79 countries on 6 continents. McDonald's celebrated twenty years of operating in the UK. McDonald's environmental image was revealed to be a sham, and customers being conned when it was discovered that rubbish which customers were asked to put into separated recycling bins throughout New Zealand stores was sent to the tip.

McDonald's achieved the highest ever grade under the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA)Quality Safety Audit scheme. McDonald's was voted the 'Most Parent Friendly' restaurant in the UK for the second successive year by the Tommy's Parent Friendly Campaign, supported by the Daily Telegraph. Workers in an Ontario store (Canada) joined a union, but the company managed to avoid recognition by ensuring victory in Labour Board sponsored elections. The McLibel Defendants issue a countersuit for libel against McDonald's over the company's accusation in a leaflet that they are telling lies. Five McDonald's managers are arrested in Lyon, France for trying to rig union elections. On 1st October, McDonald's UK executives held a celebration along with a jazz band and clown at their Woolwich store to mark 20 years since this first store opened in the UK. Twenty five London Greenpeace and McLibel supporters gathered with a banner reading "20 Years of McGarbage" and handed out 4000 "What's Wrong With McDonald's?" leaflets to passers-by. In October, there is an demonstration at McDonald's European headquarters in London where sackfuls of the company's litter picked up off the streets are returned.

500 people attend the National March Against McDonald's through central London to protest against the company's exploitation of people, animals and the environment. The company threatens legal action against a topless restaurant in Australia called "McTits". PHOTO:An ad in a German newspaper which aims to counter criticism that McDonald's is changing German restaurant traditions for the worse. 1995 McLibel Trial becomes the longest libel trial in British history on Day 102 in March. On 15th April, there were international protests to mark the 40th anniversary of the opening of the world's first store of the McDonald's Corporation, and to celebrate 10 years of co-ordinated international resistance to McDonald's. On the first anniversary of the McLibel Trial (28th June), it becomes known that McDonald's had initiated secret settlement negotiations and had twice flown members of their US Board of Directors to London to meet with the McLibel Defendants in an attempt to bring the case to an end. 12th October, the third anniversary of the death of Mark Hopkins, was a Day of Solidarity With McDonald's Workers in the UK.

On 16th October, the 11th annual Worldwide Day of Action Against McDonald's, there were protests in at least 20 countries. In the UK, at least 250 of the company's 600 stores were leafletted. On 11th December (Day 199 of the trial), the McLibel Trial becomes the longest civil case in English history. Following widespread opposition by local residents, McDonald's were refused permission to open an outlet at their European headquarters in north London. 1996 February 16th 10am, the McSpotlight website was launched. In March, the public's intense concern over the links between the cattle disease BSE and its human equivalent CJD forced McDonald's UK to ban British beef. The company did not sell any beef products for a week while supposedly waiting for beef supplies to arrive from other EU countries. The "Vegetable Deluxe" was launched in the UK. McDonald's opened stores in India. McDonald's and Disney announced a deal giving McDonald's exclusive rights to use characters from Disney films in its promotions around the world for 10 years. Commentators called it the biggest global marketing alliance yet devised.

McDonald's opened a store in Belarus, its 100th country. The movie star Robin Williams turned down a million-pound offer to advertise McDonald's. McDonald's threatened the owner of a UK sandwich bar called "McMunchies" with legal action for breach of trademark. A retired Scottish school-teacher called Ronald McDonald, and the chief of the McDonald clan in Scotland were both outraged at this further attempt by McDonald's to claim global dominion over the prefix "Mc" and the name "McDonald" which has been an Irish and Scottish family name for centuries. The Supreme Court of Denmark ruled against McDonald's claim that a sausage stand called "McAllan's" was in breach of its trademark. Following widespread opposition by local residents in Winchmore Hill (north London) which put a lot of pressure on the local MP (Michael Portillo, the Defence Secretary), McDonald's were refused permission to convert the local Conservative Association HQ into a Drive-Thru. McDonald's sued for breach of trademark a Jamaican fast-food company (called the McDonald's Corporation Limited) which had been operating in Jamaica since the early 1970's.

The Jamaican company succeeded in getting information from the McLibel Trial taken from the Internet ruled admissible in the case, and in getting an order barring McDonald's from opening stores in the country until the courtcase was completed. McDonald's succeeded in its trademark battle in South Africa, when an appeal court prohibited competitors from using its name and the golden arches symbol. McDonald's began spending $200 million on a promotional blitz in the USA & Canada to lure adults to visit their outlets. This included the launch of the new adult burger, the "Arch Deluxe" in May. Despite this blitz, US sales continued to fall. The parents of a child, who died from E.Coli 0157 food poisoning after eating McDonald's burgers in Spain and England, began legal proceedings for compensation in the USA. Meanwhile, three children who suffered E.Coli 0157 food poisoning in England also from McDonald's burgers were granted legal aid to sue McDonald's and their supplier McKey's. McDonald's opened the world's first fast-food ski-through in the Lindvallen resort (Sweden). The McLibel Trial became the longest trial of any kind in English legal history in November.

The evidence was completed in July, and the closing speeches in December, but the Judge reserved his Judgment until the following year. PHOTO: Ray Kroc Fast Food during the 1950s and 60s In the 1950s and 60s, fast food chains  epitomized by McDonald's  revolutionized the restaurant industry and changed farming and food distribution businesses. The first McDonald's restaurant was actually a barbecue joint that opened in 1940 by brothers Dick and Maurice (Mac) McDonald along Route 66 in San Bernardino, California. At first, they offered 25 different items served by carhops. They catered to young affluent people who were part of the emerging California car culture. Teens drove up, placed their order with the carhops and were served on trays that hooked onto rolled down windows. In 1940, The brothers figured out that almost all of their profits were coming the sale of hamburgers. They also sensed that teens and families alike were interested in eating quickly. So, they closed down their restaurant for several months and developed their "Speedee Service System" of food preparation. This was a streamlined assembly line for food.

They also streamlined their menu to hamburgers, milkshakes and french fries. The burgers sold for 15-cents, about half of what a burger cost at regular diners of the time. With success, the brothers franchised their enterprise and had eight restaurants open by the early 50s. It's significant that McDonald's concentrated on milkshakes because that brought Ray Kroc to McDonalds in 1954. Kroc was selling the Multimixer  a machine that could mix five shakes at a time  when he became fascinated with the Speedee system. He asks the brothers to allow him to franchise McDonald's outside of California. They do and Kroc opened his first outlet in Des Plaines, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. By 1958, the company sold its 100 millionth hamburger. By 1961, Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers and opened a training facility called Hamburger University in Illinois. The rest, as they say, is history. In a way, Burger King was an outgrowth of McDonald's. The same year that Ray Kroc visited the original McDonald's, James McLamore and David Edgerton visited as well.

They were both graduates of the Cornell University course in hotel administration, and they also saw the potential of assembly-line fast food. They opened their first restaurant in 1954 in a suburb of Miami, Florida. Now, Burger King has more than 11,220 franchise outlets in 61 countries. The franchise model was quickly adapted to other types of food, for example, pizza. By the early 50s, servicemen returning from Italy brought back a taste for pizza. Up until then, pizza was a regional dish concentrated in Italian immigrant neighborhoods in New York and Chicago. New York pizza was very thin, and Chicago pizza tended to be very thick. After WWII, other local pizza joints began to open up with a variety of recipes. In 1958, Dan and Frank Carney borrowed $600 from their mother and opened the first Pizza Hut in Wichita Kansas. It was so successful that they began franchising restaurants quickly. By 1968, they opened their first restaurant in Canada. Now they have operations in over 100 countries. Dominos added delivery to the pizza business when they opened their first store in Detroit Michigan in 1960.

Their guarantee  delivery in 30 minutes or it's free  helped them expand to include more than 8,000 stores in 55 countries. Today, there are 4.2 billion pizzas sold every year by 60,000 pizzerias. The franchise model  with a central source of supply for food items and standardized menu  became so successful that fast food joints are now part of multi-national corporate giants. Pizza Hut is now part of the aptly named Yum! Brands, a corporation that also owns Taco Bell, A&W, Long John Silver's, and the American icon KFC. In the early 1950s, Col. Harland Sanders was both a victim and a beneficiary of the automobile boom. Since the Depression, Sanders had been serving fried chicken  prepared with a "secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices"  at his gas station and restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky. But the route for the new Interstate 75 was going to bypass his establishment, so the Colonel sold his property and started traveling across the U.S. trying to sell his spice recipe and preparation method.

Sanders claimed that frying his chicken in a pressure cooker shortened the preparation time. The short cooking time would take advantage of the fast food boom. No one bought, until Pete Harman of South Salt Lake, Utah, opened the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in 1952. Today, KFC has 750,000 employees and is the most popular Western fast food chain in China. Coincidently, Dave Thomas got into the fast food business by franchising several KFC stores in Ohio. He was the one who came up the idea that the chicken should be sold in paper buckets to wick away excess moisture, and he also came up with the rotating bucket-of-chicken advertising sign that, at one time, was outside every KFC. But in 1969, Thomas wanted to go out on his own, and so he opened the first Wendy's in Columbus, Ohio. He stressed fresh, rather than frozen, meat served as square patties prepared fresh and served "hot off the grill." Wendy's was also the first fast food restaurant to build a drive-through window in 1970.

That cut down on labor costs because carhops were no longer needed, and all of the fast food chains built drive-throughs within a few years. The predominance of fast food restaurants changed the food supply chain all the way down to the farmer. McDonald's quickly became the single largest buyer of beef, pork, potatoes and apples in the U.S. That gave them tremendous economic clout. The fast food system is all about standardization, and so when the companies went looking for someone to supply their meat, they choose to deal with their large, corporate counterparts in the packing industry. IBP began to produce "boxed beef," where the final cuts of beef, including hamburger, were produced at the processing plant rather than the local grocery. IBP became the largest supplier of hamburger meat to the fast food industry. Kentucky Fried Chicken buys all of its chickens from huge suppliers like Perdue, Tyson and Pilgrim's Pride. McDonald's gets its fish products from the giant supplier Gorton's of Gloucester. Because consumers with busy lifestyles needed food fast, the chains needed raw materials in standardized packages. So, meat packers needed a consistent supply of standardized animals to produce their meat.

They couldn't afford to deal with the uncertainty of many, small family farms. So, livestock producers became bigger and bigger. McDonald'sand other chains have also been accused of using their huge buying power to keep farm produce prices artificially low. When McDonald's expanded into international marketplaces beginning in 1971, McDonald's both adapted to local conditions and forced local farmers to adapt to them. For instance, beef is not the lead meat item offered in countries that have cultural taboos or food preferences for other types of meat. However, the company has been accused of changing food preferences and exporting American culture around the world along with its propensity for obesity. McDonald's and other fast food chains have affected farmers wherever new restaurants open. In 1990, McDonald's opened their first outlet in Russia. When they realized that they couldn't guarantee a high quality, reliable supply of meat and other food products, they opened their own farms, controlling the supply chain at every step. Written by Bill Ganzel, the Ganzel Group . First published in 2007. A partial bibliography of sources is here .

Macca's Story | McDonald's New Zealand 1955 – Ray Kroc opens the first McDonald’s® in Des Plaines, Illinois. 1957 – ‘Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value’ (QSC&V) becomes the company motto. 1959 – A new McDonald’s opens at a rate of one every five and a half days. The 100th McDonald’s opens in Wisconsin. 1962 – The Golden Arches become the company logo. 1966 – Ronald McDonald® makes his first national television appearance. McDonald’s stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. 1968 – The 1000th restaurant opens in Des Plaines, Illinois. The Big Mac® is added to the menu. 1971 – McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in Australia. 1972 – The 2000th restaurant opens in Des Plaines, Illinois. The Quarter Pounder® is introduced. 1974 – The first Ronald McDonald House® opens in Philadephia, USA. 1975 – McDonald’s celebrates its 20th anniversary. The Drive Thru concept is unveiled in Oklahoma.

1976 – McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in New Zealand on 7 June, located in Porirua, near Wellington. 1978 – The 5000th McDonald’s restaurant opens in Fujiswawa City, Japan. 1978 – McDonald’s New Zealand opens its first Drive Thru, located in Lower Hutt, near Wellington. 1984 – Ray Kroc, McDonald’s Founder and Senior Chairman, dies and Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities (RMCC) is established in his memory. 1986 – The 9000th restaurant opens in Sydney, Australia. McDonald’s opens its first restaurant near the North Pole, with the address McDonald’s, Santa Claus Lane, North Pole, Alaska. 1989 – Ronald McDonald House Charities® becomes a registered New Zealand charity. 1990 – The world’s largest McDonald’s with 900 seats opens in Pushkin Square, Moscow. A McDonald’s restaurant now opens somewhere in the world every 14.5 hours. 1991 – New Zealand's first Ronald McDonald House® opens in Wellington. 1991 – The 150th Ronald McDonald House opens in Paris.

1991 – McDonald’s New Zealand serves its first breakfast customers in its Queen Street restaurant, and opens its 50th New Zealand restaurant in Chartwell Square, Hamilton. 1993 – McDonald’s becomes the second most recognised brand in the world. The world’s first McCafé® opens in Melbourne, Victoria. 1998 – New Zealand’s first McCafé opens in the Queen Street restaurant. 1996 – McDonald’s New Zealand opens its 100th restaurant, located in the Auckland University of Technology (previously AIT), Auckland. 1996 – McDonald’s is invited to operate the first ever branded restaurant in the Olympic Village. 1999 – McDonald’s opens its 25,000th restaurant in Chicago, USA. 2004 – The Happy Meal celebrates 25 years (1979 – 2004). Nutrition labelling is introduced to packaging on McDonald’s core menu items – an industry first. 2006 – McDonald’s launches the official worldwide rollout of nutritional information on product packaging. 2009 – Addition of Angus beef to the McDonald’s menu with the Grand Angus® and Mighty Angus® burgers.

2010 – McDonald’s New Zealand launches a free in-restaurant WiFi service. 2010 – McDonald’s goes into official partnership with Weight Watchers and launches the Weight Watchers approved menu. 2011 – McDonald’s NZ spends $150 million with local suppliers; $300 million in New Zealand supplies are also exported to global McDonald’s markets. 2012 – McDonald’s New Zealand appoints a new Managing Director. Patrick Wilson brings 27 years experience within McDonald’s, starting in the company as a crew person at age 18. Click here to see our food

Question: Where was the first McDonalds outlet opened in 1955?
Answer: Chicago