Hard work and McDonald's recipe for success

Marcus Pohio has bought the Taradale McDonald's and says he can't lose.

"McDonald's is such a successful business model, more people should be trying to duplicate it. There are over 30,000 successful restaurants around the world - it works pretty well."

He already owns the Hastings store and is looking forward to the synergies. "Multi site ownership is a real challenge - which is great," he said. "With two stores we can get growth out of and develop more managers, more crew, and then when we pick up Havelock we will have three lots of management teams - that's great, and that's the journey."

He said head office bought the Havelock North land in March 2009 and building will start next year. "They have a formula and do quite in-depth research about populations and traffic flows and general trends. They are fairly experienced at doing that, given they have about 160 sites in New Zealand. When I started in McDonald's there were six restaurants in Auckland, there are now more than 50."

The Lindisfarne College student moved to Auckland to do a Bachelor of Commerce degree but needed a job. "I had $5 left and they had a sign up saying, now hiring."

He quickly rose through the ranks. "I got promoted from crew to crew trainer, to shift assistant, to shift manager, to salaried manager to store manager and that was when I finished my degree and went full time," he said. "I ran a number of stores for McDonald's and opened a few for them. I then was promoted into working for McDonald's New Zealand doing all of their management training for about 18 months."

He said he liked the company's structured and hierarchical system. "You are always learning more and getting more opportunity."

He then worked as a business consultant for nine McDonald's franchisees and 18 of their stores in New Zealand for two years.

After a decade with the company he opted for change and over the next five years took on separate roles, firstly with Anchor Milk and then Westfield. "I set up a franchise system for Anchor and promoted it as a credible option for owners. I did that for 18 months and then worked for Westfield for 3 years managing shopping centres."

He said his accounting and finance degree helped with his corporate career. "I might not have been the most talented hamburger maker or manager in the world, but people gave me a chance because of my degree."

In 2003 the pull of the golden arches was too strong and Mr Pohio and his wife Lynette were given the opportunity to buy a franchise in Auckland's Glenfield - but were a bit short of cash.

"We were particularly lucky. We were wanne-be property speculators and had bought about five rentals. Once we got the opportunity to come back into McDonald's we didn't have anywhere near enough money. They financed us in which gave us our chance. It gave us some time to sell some properties to get the minimum equity to be able to get the rest of the finance - that was particularly difficult.

"I had quite a strong relationship with some of the senior guys at McDonald's and they gave me the opportunity because they knew my McDonald's career, they knew what I had gone on to do, and at the time they were looking for younger franchisees to come into the business and work hard to drive their businesses forward - and that's what we did."

He said a McDonald's franchise is not a quick road to riches. "It's a long-term business strategy. To make the right sort of returns out of this business you have to do it for years.

"Our capital investment costs are high - we are continually investing into this brand. Since I have been at Hastings we have put in two new friers, two new grills, I have changed around our drive-through configuration and we are about to change everything about the Hastings dining room - the entire building is about to be almost rebuilt. We want it to be contemporary. Any returns we have possibly taken out of this business over the past two or three years is going to be tied back into this reimage, which is a significant investment, but it is what keeps this brand alive."

Drive-thru times are also important. A software programme, Drive Thru Scoreboard, tracks the number of cars per hour and provides real-time data on the average time it takes for a customer to be processed at the drive thru. It also shows where a store is ranked nationally in terms of drive-thru customer service speed.

"We live or die by this technology. Even the managing director of McDonald's New Zealand has one of these on his desk so he can see who is the fastest store."

He said he and Lynette make a good team - they met over the grill at Glenfield.

"It is very much a business partnership and in my view that's how it works best - she brings things to the business that I don't." Lynette manages marketing and promotions and liases with the many community sponsorships.

For his family's sake he returned to Hawke's Bay. "In my humble opinion it is the best place in New Zealand to bring up kids. I remember the first couple of months in Glenfield and I called up the Hastings owner and said, when it is time to sell, we are your team. It turned out we had to go to Gisborne on the way home.

They sold Gisborne in 2009 to buy Hastings, and last week Taradale and in 2012 it will be Havelock North.

He is far from complacent. "We want these stores to be the best in what we call the DNA of our business - quality, service and cleanliness.

"If we get that right it should mean great sales growth, great transactions growth of customers, great profits. We can only achieve that through a team of highly motivated, well trained individuals. If we get all that right we hit paydirt. We know the formula works - we believe in the DNA."

Marcus Pohio is home and loving it.

patrick.osullivan@btoday.co.nz