You may love them or you may hate them but the fact is that McDonald’s is the largest hamburger franchise in the world. I doubt there are many that don’t know them or haven’t tried their burgers at some point. The are just so huge and has revolutionized the fast-food industry with a consistent delivery of quality hamburgers at a low price. I doubt that anyone can make a hamburger at this quality anywhere in the world to the price that McDonald’s can.

But do you know how it all started? I have researched the origin of McDonald’s and how they became such a huge success.

It all started in a small drive-in restaurant in San Bernardino, California in the late 1940′s. The restaurant was owned by the two brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald’s and they wanted to improve their restaurant’s business.

McDonald's Brothers

They had the idea to bring the concept of mass production known from manufacturing plants into the restaurant. They implemented the kitchen equivalent to an assembly line and it allowed them to provide speedy service, larger volume and lower prices.
They got rid of the drive-in’s car hopping, reduced the menu from 25 to 9 items and created a self service counter for their customers.

The brothers reengineered the kitchen to allow mass production, and burgers were made using assembly line procedures. The increased efficiency and new procedures allowed them to lower the price of a hamburger from 30 to 15 cents.

Even though the price of the hamburger was halved by the mid 1950′s the revenue was almost doubled from $200,000 to $350,000.

McDonald's Restaurant

In 1952 the McDonald’s brothers opened their first franchise in Phoenix, Arizona. The prototype for the chain they envisioned the red-and-white building with the slanting roof and the “Golden Arches” became the model for the first wave of McDonald’s restaurants to hit the country.

Even though the McDonald’s Brother had a great franchise concept they had no ambition to take the franchise nationwide. Ray Kroc, a local sales man saw the potential in the franchise and became their exclusive franchise agent for the entire country.

Ray Kroc

On April 15, 1955 Kroc’s new franchising company McDonald’s System, Inc opened his prototype McDonald’s in Des Plaines, IL with the help of Art Bender, who served the first McDonald’s Brothers hamburger and now also the first Ray Kroc McDonald’s hamburger.

Kroc retained the successful format of limited menu, quality and assembly line production and continued to grow the successful franchise.

By the end of 1956 there were 14 restaurants grossing $1.2 million in annual sales and having served 50 million burgers. In 1960, there were 228 restaurants with $37.6 million in sales and 400 million burgers served.

The McDonald’s brother had some very restrictive franchise requirements and Kroc knew he had to buy them out to enjoy further growth and he paid them 2.7 million in cash for the franchise in 1961.

The same year Kroc opened Hamburger University, a training facility for new franchises and store managers which has grown to be a worldwide institution utilizing sophisticated training techniques and high-level management courses.

Hamburger University

McDonald’s growth in the Unites States soon became a series of milestones:

In 1963 McDonald’s sold one million hamburgers per day and the same year hamburger number 1 billion was served.

On July 5, 1966, McDonald’s was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1968 restaurant number 1,000 opened in Des Plaines, Illinois.

By 1970, McDonald’s reported $587 million in sales from 1,600 restaurants in all 50 states of the US and four other countries.

McDonald’s broke the billion dollar sales mark in 1972 and in 1975 the first drive-thru operation was established in Sierra Vista, Arizona. This innovation accounts for half of all their sales today.

Restaurants kept coming and sales grew. By 1990 sales was $18.7 billion and 80 billion hamburgers sold. There were now 11,800 McDonald’s restaurants in 54 countries.

Today McDonald’s has more than 31,000 restaurants worldwide. They serve 47 million customers daily. Revenue of around $24 billion.