For many of us, a trip to McDonald’s is an occasional treat, but for Jeanette Roe, the fast food chain has been a big part of her life for decades.
She first began working for the company in 1981 as a graduate trainee manager, after getting a degree in economics at Lancaster University.
Before long Jeanette had worked her way up to head of training, customer services and operations development within the company before acquiring her first restaurant.
Including the recent addition of the McDonald’s restaurant at Broughton Retail Park to her impressive repertoire, Jeanette can now officially say that she owns all the McDonald’s restaurants in Chester – operating a sizeable team of more than 360 local employees.
It’s an impressive feat for the girl who grew up in the small town of Houghton-le-Spring, between Durham and Sunderland, and moved to the North West in 1989.
But Jeanette is keen to expand her success in the Chester area and has revealed that McDonald’s will be creating more than 20 new jobs in the area later this year, offering career progression opportunities to existing staff.
“Working alongside my staff and managers is what I enjoy most about my job,” says Jeanette.
“And I also love seeing young people, many of whom who join us for their first time job, develop into professional and succesful business managers running multi million pound operations.
“I am so proud of the way that so many of them willingly give of their own time to participate in, and indeed organise, the many community projects that we’re involved in.
“McDonald’s is a company that continually innovates - whether it’s introducing a new promotional product, a new piece of equipment or technology, new uniforms or new decor packages to allow us to keep our restaurants contemporary and relevant to our customers,” added Jeanette.
“There’s always something new on the horizon so every day is different.
“Although that’s certainly a challenge, it’s also what makes the company so successful and it’s exciting to be a part of that.
“I’m incredibly proud to have been a part of such a successful brand for over 30 years.”