You read Part 1, right?
The McDonald brothers were not as convinced as Ray Kroc was concerning the viability of making their hamburger and shake business huge….
In 1961,(50 years ago..feeling old?) Ray Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers for a paltry $2.7 million. With the less than motivated McDonald brothers out of Ray's hair, he was free to bring this idea of his to the next level.
One of Ray's idiosyncrasies was that his restaurants had to be absolutely spotless. Here is what Ray said of restaurant cleanliness, and it's employees:
"If you have time to lean, you have time to clean". I'll bet he was a tough old bird.
(It would have been awesome to meet him)
He chose franchise owners that he felt would be sticklers when it came to cleanliness.
By 1963, McDonald's had grown so much, that it's signs displayed "1 Billion Hamburgers Sold"!
McDonald's just had just hit it's 500th restaurant mark, and it was uphill from there to say the least.
Also in that year, that re-haired clown, Ronald McDonald, made his debut. It has been said that kids in the 60's knew more about Ronald McDonald than they knew about the President of The United States.
Ray Kroc was the president of the company until 1968, and was the chairman of the board until 1977.
In addition, he owned the San Diego Padres baseball team. He died in January of 1984, a wealthy man.
Time Magazine called Ray Kroc, one of "The Builders and Titans of the Twentieth Century." While we always tell folks at our seminars that "there is a lot more to franchising than burgers, donuts and mufflers", burgers can be a good thing…Thank you Ray for making franchising a household name!
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