The history of McDonalds starts at 1954. That year Ray Kroc, representative of five-spindled milkshake makers, discovers the McDonalds hamburger stand in California. In that restaurant many people were served very quickly and Ray Kroc soon realizes this restaurant has a future. They conclude a contract what gives him the right to use the McDonald’s concept all over the world. On 15 April 1955 the first restaurant is opened in Des Plaines (Illinois). This is now no longer a restaurant, but a museum containing McDonald’s memorabilia and artefacts, including Ray Kroc’s milkshake maker.

McDonald’s is a big success, and restaurants open all over the world. In 1965 McDonald’s went public with the companies first offering on the stock exchange. A hundred shares of stock costing $2,250 dollars that day would have multiplied into 74,360 shares today, worth over $2. 8 million on December 31, 1998. In 1985 McDonald’s was added to the 30-company Dow Jones Industrial Average. The current stock price is $24,70. Ronald McDonald is the mascot of McDonald’s; he is a well-known entertainer. In 1974 Fred Hill of the Philadelphia Eagles teamed up with McDonald’s to create Ronald McDonald House.

Here the families of critically ill children have a place to call home while they’re away from home as the young patients undergo treatment for their conditions. These houses turn out to be a success, and other Ronald McDonald houses are opened all over the world. McDonald’s serves the world some of its favourite foods – World Famous French Fries, Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, Chicken McNuggets and Egg McMuffin. And they are available all over the world. Now McDonald’s is the world’s leading food service retailer with more than 30,000 restaurants in 119 countries serving 46 million customers each day.

It is one of the worlds most well-known and valuable brands and holds a big share in the quick service restaurant segment. Most small or medium-sized business which decide to become a company become private limited companies; they are often family businesses with the shares held by the members of the family. All the shareholders of a Ltd are registered. An Ltd cannot offer his shares for sale to the public, and the ability to raise money may be limited. A private company may become a public limited company is it has a share capital of at least 50,000 pounds and is issued with a Trading Certificate issued by Companies House.

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A Plc can offer its shares for sale on the Stock Market in order to raise finance, but not all Plc’s take this step. When a business offers its shares for sale to the public it will employ a merchant bank to manage the operation, which is known as a ‘flotation’. The cost of a flotation can be high, sometimes running into millions of pounds for the largest issues. The shareholders of a Plc are not registered. Public limited company The McDonald’s group is a Plc, so they sell their stocks to the public. There are a lot of advantages about being a Plc, but there are also some disadvantages.

‘Reducing capital spending compared with 2002 and using the money remaining after capital expenditures to pay down debt and return cash to shareholders. ‘ They want to improve the profitability of the restaurants, and control the expenses associated with supporting their restaurants. They also want to divide there capital more effectively. Achieving the objectives McDonald’s is making new plans for the future. They management recently has set up a new revitalization plan with new objectives for the next years.

So it is hard to say if they can achieve their objectives, this will turn out next year. But as you can see in the diagram below, McDonald’s has only grown over the past years. Not only the total revenues increased, but you can also see the number of restaurants is still growing. In 1998 McDonald’s decided their main objective had to be attracting more customers. This worked for a few years, but they noticed the numbers stopped growing so quickly. That is why they set up new objectives last year. Now one of the main objectives is to build brand loyalty, to ensure the customers will come back.