Terry Eagle is flying high with McDonald's

Thursday, 05 February 2009

A BURGER magnate has scoffed at reports that the recession accounts for his soaring sales.

The credit crunch may be biting, but Terry Eagle has plans to expand his South London McDonald’s empire.

He thinks the idea that people are turning to cheap fast food because of the downturn is overstated.

Instead, he puts the success of his restaurants down to good surroundings and excellent staff.

He said: “We have done lots of things including refurbishing restaurants, incentives for our staff and an apprentice scheme.”

With 30 years’ business experience, today he shares his advice on how to weather the downturn.

His McDonald’s career started with two nights a week in the Catford branch in 1976.

To his surprise he enjoyed it so much he dropped his ambitions to be an engineer and made McDonald’s his career.

“I got hooked,” he said.

By 19, he was a restaurant manager, and by 22 an area manager supervising restaurants across South London from London Bridge to Croydon.

At 29 he decided to go into franchising and bought his first restaurant in Camberwell.

Now he has five restaurants across Brixton, Elephant & Castle and Penge, and plans three more in the next three years.

He said: “In 1976 I had a part-time job for pocket money. Here I am at 47, the owner, employing 320 people,” He encourages his staff to aim just as high.

He said: “If you come into the system and apply yourself and work hard, there’s an open door for you to go anywhere you want to go.”

Of his 51 managers, 40 started as restaurant staff.

He numbers doctors, lawyers and accountants among ex-employees who are still in touch.

He likes his restaurants to get involved in local events such as fetes and park clean-ups.

His McDonald’s franchises also train stewards for the Brixton Splash, the area’s annual street festival.

Mr Eagle also supports the Ronald McDonald houses, which provide families who have children in hospital with somewhere to stay nearby.

Mr Eagle was involved in fundraising for the 10-bedroom Camberwell house, which cost £600,000 to build and opened in 2000.

He was also a national trustee of the charity in 2006 and 2007.

“I have real belief that if you are trading in an area you must be involved with the community,” he said.

Email: newsdesk@slp.co.uk

---

Share on Facebook

Be the first to comment using the form below.

Submit your comment below :
Your Name (required) :

Your Email*(required) :

Your Location (required) :

Your Comment (required) :

Maximum Number of characters for this text box is 400.

You have 400 characters remaining for your description...

I agree to the terms and conditions and comment rules (required) :

The South London Press may not publish all comments.
Your comments may be published on any Tindle Newspaper Ltd. media.
*Your email address will not be displayed.

Enter the code as it is shown below (required):