Netherton and Litherland NOW! - New McDonald's

Fast-food giant opens second store

by Lisa Bentley, Matthew Denman and Alan McGing

PUPILS from the three local high schools that produce NOW attended the recent opening of the new McDonald’s on Dunningsbridge Road.


Fast food: Pupils at the opening of the new store

The new McDonald’s, the second drive-thru’ restaurant that the food giant has situated locally, was opened on May 23 by the company’s regional manager.

The most notable thing about the new restaurant was the speed with which a green field site became a fully-functioning operation within a matter of weeks. It was not, however, the fastest building programme in this country since building started on the Runcorn branch at 9am on one day and was busy selling hot food just 24 hours' later!

Chris English, the manager of the new Netherton restaurant believes working for McDonald's is a good career: "I have worked for McDonald's for three and a half years since leaving university and I enjoy it greatly," Chris says.

"There is a good basic salary, a company car, medical insurance, pension plan, share in the McDonald's company, bonuses, free tickets for local Premiership and Pontin's League matches and even £150 per year to spend at Marks and Spencer!"

The new McDonald's has created 90 new jobs for the area, 30 of which are full time. Most of the staff live locally. Chris English says there were three main reasons why the branch chose the Dunningsbridge Road location.

"The opening of the new cinema, grants from the Netherton Partnership and the fact that the road is part of the new Eurogateway development all influenced the decision to locate here," he said.

With the new restaurant being so close to the existing Aintree branch there is bound to be an effect on business at the Ormskirk Road restaurant but Chris says: "We expect to improve the company profits when the two stores are considered together."

The Netherton store is the 874th in England, a far cry from when the first McDonald's opened in this country at Woolwich in 1974. Chris English says the most popular meal at McDonald's is still the Big Mac meal, but the Chicken McSandwich meal is a close second. For the World Cup, McDonald’s ran a Bacon McDouble special meal.


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