| name: | Paul Preston |
| occupation: | President and Chief Executive Officer of McDonald's UK |
| relevance: | witness |
previous experience:
Preston is President and Chief Executive Officer of McDonald's UK. He has already spent 3 days being grilled in the witness box and is due to return towards the end of the case. He occasionally comes to the court to watch proceedings.
Preston was born in 1948 in Ohio (USA). "I left school at 16, joined McDonald's, went into the army, then back to McDonald's. In 1974, I was asked to help start the show in London. Virgin territory!" Preston recalls. He became the manager of the Woolwich store, "the UK launchpad". He became President in the mid-80's when McDonald's had 200 stores in the UK - they now have over 600, more than any other European country. "We won't be far from 1,000 in the year 2,000," he gloats.
quotes:
"McDonald's isn't a job. It's a life. Our employees have ketchup in their
veins."
"We'll be in every major town, on motorways, in more airports. I think hospitals offer an interesting opportunity."
When presented with the estimate in 1991 that fast food outlets are the source of 20% of London's street litter, Preston admitted "Litter is certainly the biggest complaint...it's a British social problem." His testimony in the trial gave a different impression: he said that if one million customers each bought a soft drink, he would not expect more than 150 cups to end up as litter.
Evening Standard (Dec1991)
From the same interview:
and with regard to planning officers:
links:
