McDonalds: Im Lovin' It!

McDonalds has always been a target for the whakos and lefties in New Zealand for being one of those "evil, greedy" American companies that want to take over our culture, exploit workers. make us all fat buggers and give nothing back to the country but this piece in the New Zealand Herald out today proves that this is wrong on all counts:

McDonald's spent more than $145 million buying goods from local suppliers in 2009 - up $25 million on the year before, mostly due to increased sales.

He said McDonald's had been seeing strong growth in New Zealand in the two years prior to the financial crises, and the company used that time to improve its brand.

Much of the growth came from McDonald's new restaurants - 10 of which were opened last year as part of the company's three-year capital investment programme that will see $300 million invested, Hawthorne said.

He said the company was on track to open 10 new restaurants this year, the first being in Richmond, Nelson, next week.

He said McDonald's had spent the three years prior to the recession struggling to find enough workers, but those employment issues had faded with the downturn.

The company is expanding in a time of high unemployment, it currently directly employs more than 5000 people and indirectly through its suppliers many thousands more and has a distinctive New Zealand culture in its Kiwi businesses.

For franchise owners it also provides a long term opportunity to make some serious money from a good honest community minded business and for workers to have the ability to move from flipping burgers to owning an outlet.

The fast food industry fosters young people and can motivate the right people to better themselves, within and outside the sector.

I don't eat there myself, too expensive and unappealing to me, but the fact that they have 150 outlets and serve over 1 million meals every week means a large numer of New Zealanders love the place.

I love it too for all the positive reasons outlined above.


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Fast Food in New Zealand

Mcdonalds.co.nz
KFC.co.nz
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c Share Investor 2010

Thai Express

Well, I wish the Thailand economy was as hot as the weather. I'm here in Bangkok on a business trip of sorts and while here naturally I would be checking out the action on the stockmarket and goings on economy wise.

There are rumblings of a coup here at the moment, where the "PAD" a people's democracy movement are trying to overthrow the nation's leader. This is naturally having an affect on the local stockmarket and their stock index has waivered in the last couple of days.

Looking around the country though any natural born capitalist, or one who has joined the movement recently, would be excited at the industrial nature of commerce and industry. The economy is of course highly controlled by a benevolent dictatorship(my own estimation) but that doesn't stop the nations people from trying to reach their obvious economic dream of having all the western accoutrement's.

If our tour guide is accurate in her figures, one of the main reasons for the locals and their fastidious work rate is the personal tax system. A range from 3% to a maximum of 30% is a definite incentive to get the country moving in a forward economic direction.

Our corrupt socialist Labour Party New Zealand leaders should take note. Our high tax rate is of course strangling our economy to death. Take my word, the Thai people are very poor as a whole today and the economy is struggling but give them 10 years or so and they will be richer than New Zealand. Far richer.

The constraints of red tape and planning procedures also don't hamper the forwards progress of the Thai economy. Factories belch lovely coloured smoke and their water is undrinkable. The 19th century industrial process is a little late in coming here. You have to let them have it though. It would be greedy and hypocritical of the Western World to hamper them with the Global Warming madness and other business constraints. Time and money will take care of the environment.

Leaving the hotel after this I will be confronted with a million people trying to take a Baht or 2 off me to help feed their families. It is in your face, exciting and entrepreneurial to the extreme. All that New Zealand business seems to lack at present, and has done for a long time.

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c Share Investor 2008