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Fast-food chain head ex-lawyerMONTREAL (CP) - The official opening of • McDonald ’s 4,000th restaurant brought company presidents from four countries and 1,200 company operators and concessionaires to Montreal recently.The occasion was symbolic of the wealth, efficiency and* Vself-proclaimed 1 ‘wholesome family-type atmosphere” at McDonald’s.“We take this business a lot more seriously than. anyone else,” says the Canadian president of the hamburger chain.George Cohnn is happy, somewhat corny, and makes money — Canada is McDonald’s largest market outside the U.S.The former Chicago lawyer who became a Canadian citizen last year heads an operation of 200 restaurants expected to achieve $200 million in sales and $11 million in profits this year.“We’re a group of young guys who love what we’re doing.” He is 39 and wears a Ronald McDonald watch.The presidents of the American, Hong Kong and Australian operations are about the same age and radiate the kind of confidence and satisfaction born of success.About 30 per cent of the restaurants are company-owned. The rest are run by licensees, as the company calls concessionaires, who must sign a 20-year contract.American president Fred Turner called recruiting restaurant managers and licensees “a very difficult part of the business.”“It's tough finding the good ones because they must be interested in community work,” lie said, explaining that McDonald’s devotes half of one per cent of sales to good works in each restaurant's community.Hnng Kong president Daniel Ng heads an operation of four restaurants and attributes some of his success to the British colony’s laissez-faire government.“The government really leaves people alone,” he says happily.In Australia, where income can he taxed as high as 67 per cent, president Peter Ritchie says the McDonald formula works just as well.Though it seemed they had both travelled far for the opening of one restaurant, company junkets for its executives are common and are combined with working sessions.
Newspaper Details
Lethbridge Herald
Lethbridge, Alberta, CA
Fri, Oct 15, 1976
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 04 Nov 2019
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