From what customers demanded at first restaurant to why Ronald McDonald was axed – 50 amazing facts about McDonald’s
WE British are Mac mad, with almost four million of us visiting McDonald’s every day.
And as the US burger giant celebrates 50 years on our high streets, the familiar golden arches are set to multiply, with plans for 200 more branches in the next four years, creating 24,000 jobs here and in Ireland.
It is half a century since the firm’s mascot Ronald McDonald and burger bandit The Hamburglar led the brand’s UK invasion, with its first restaurant opening in a former Burton’s menswear shop in Woolwich, South London.
Now there are more than 1,450 branches across the UK and Ireland.
Here, Nadia Cohen serves up 50 fun facts to mark McDonald’s big McBirthday.
THE first McDonald’s advert aired in UK cinemas in 1975, and on TV a year later, starring pint-sized thief Hamburglar, whose catchphrase was, “Robble! Robble!”. Later ads featured aliens and ex-England footballer Alan Shearer.
WITH his wide-brimmed hat and cape, Hamburglar was voiced by actor Howard Morris in most early commercials, followed by Tommy Vicini, who played the role from 1992 to 2003.
HAMBURGLAR was originally called the Lone Jogger, and wore a shirt bearing that slogan. He spoke in gibberish, which had to be translated by his accomplice, Captain Crook.
WHILE the inventor of the Ronald McDonald character is disputed, Willard Scott was the first actor to portray him. He was later fired for being “too fat”. Ronald himself was let go in the early 2000s as the firm moved away from advertising to kids, stung by claims it was fuelling childhood obesity.
EARLY adverts featured McDonald-land, a fantasy world where apple pies grew on trees, there was a hamburger patch, a shake volcano and a Filet-O-Fish lake.
GRIMACE, a purple monster, stole shakes from customers in the ads.
MAYOR McCheese and Officer Big Mac were hot on the villains’ heels, and often appeared in stores, too.
TO try to make the UK McDonald’s menu taste more American, at first onions were imported from California, apple pies from Oklahoma and pickles from New York.
UNTIL deals were struck with UK suppliers, the food packaging was flown in from Germany, milkshake mix came from the Netherlands, fish from Denmark and potatoes came all the way from Canada.
THE price of a Big Mac in 1974 was 89p.
BACK then the most popular item on the menu was the All Star Meal — a hamburger, small fries and soft drink for 48p.
THE first milkshakes would have set you back 46p.
ROAST beef sandwiches and strawberry shortcake were not big sellers and soon ditched from the original UK menu.
IN 1977, McDonald’s opened its own bakery at Hemel Hempstead in Herts to supply all its burger buns.
DURING its first five years in the UK, it lost £7.6million as rival Wimpy still proved more popular.
THE breakfast menu was introduced in 1982, led by the Egg McMuffin.
THANKS to the arrival of Chicken McNuggets in 1984, McDonald’s finally recorded its first UK profit.
THE Happy Meal — food and a toy in a box — was launched for kids in 1986. Now McDonald’s is the world’s largest distributor of toys.
THE first drive-thru restaurant appeared at Fallowfield in Manchester in 1986. The idea had come from an Arizona military base where soldiers were not meant to leave their cars while in uniform.
1989 saw the McChicken Sandwich added to the UK menu.
BY the end of the 1980s, the UK had 340 McDonald’s branches, the busiest being on the Strand in London.
IN 1986, environmental campaigners Helen Steel and David Morris published a leaflet criticising McDonald’s. In 1990 the company sued them for libel in a trial — famously dubbed McLibel — that staggered on for seven years. McDonald’s finally won, although Steel and Morris were helped by future Prime Minister Keir Starmer, then a barrister, who said: “I thought it was chilling for freedom of expression.”
THE McPloughman’s — a cheese, pickle and salad sandwich — was such a flop after its 1991 launch that it was scrapped almost immediately.
SALES plummeted 50 per cent in 1996 amid an outbreak of BSE, or mad cow disease, which can spread to humans who eat infected beef. British beef was temporarily replaced with meat from the Netherlands.
THE company phased out the use of genetically modified food in 1999.
THE McFlurry ice cream was added to the desert menu in 2000.
IN 2003, the chain introduced fresh fruit and organic milk, and healthier options were added to the breakfast menu in 2004, including porridge, bagels and freshly ground coffee.
TOASTED deli sandwiches arrived in 2005.
FROM 2007, McDonald’s converted its lorries to run on biodiesel made from oil from its restaurant fryers.
IN 2011, deli wraps were made permanent menu items.
BY 2018, McDonald’s had become the second largest seller of coffee in Britain, behind Costa.
THE firm has more than 36,000 restaurants around the world, in more than 100 countries.
THE franchises have more than a million employees worldwide.
CHARITABLE foundation Ronald McDonald House Charities UK celebrates its 35th birthday this year. It provides accommodation for families with children in hospital.
THE charity’s first European branches opened in Germany and the Netherlands in 1971, followed by France in 1972 and Sweden in 1973.
QUEEN Elizabeth II owned a McDonald’s drive-thru in Slough, Berks, a few miles from Windsor, because one of the Crown Estate’s royal acquisitions in 2008 was the Bath Road Shopping Park.
THE firm had a record year in 2011 when it sold almost 100million Big Macs in Britain.
ITS best-selling product is medium-sized fries.
McDONALD’S opens a new restaurant somewhere in the world every 14.5 hours.
MORE than 80,000 people have graduated from McDonald’s Hamburger University, the firm’s training centre in Chicago, with a degree in Hamburgerology.
IT takes the average McDonald’s employee seven months to earn what McDonald’s chief Chris Kempczinski makes in an hour.
McDONALD’S used to sell pizza and hot dogs in the 1970s.
THE company’s yellow arches are recognised by more people worldwide than the Christian cross.
BEEF for its UK restaurants is sourced from more than 200,000 British and Irish farmers who must meet the Red Tractor industry quality standard.
FRIES are made from Russet Burbank and Shepody potatoes, which are long, so they can be cut to the right length.
McDONALD’S won an RSPCA Assured Award in 2017 for its commitment to farm animal welfare.
ANYONE interested in becoming a McDonald’s franchisee needs to invest around £125,000.
CANNOCK Chase in the West Midlands and Bolsover in Derbyshire both have the most McDonald’s branches per head — five restaurants for every 100,000 people.
THERE are still 18 council boroughs who have managed to remain McDonald’s free, including Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire and Waverley in Surrey.
THERE are no branches at all in the Orkney or Shetland islands.