McDonald's has always been a franchising company and has relied on its franchisees to play a major role in its success. About 70% of McDonald's worldwide restaurant business are owned and operated by independent businessmen and businesswomen. In Malaysia, we also want to share this success with locals and we want to extend this opportunity to any suitable Malaysians interested in becoming our franchisees, running a quick service restaurant with the most recognised brand in the world.

With this in mind, we plan to move one stage at a time. As a start, we will be targeting only about four restaurants this year and progressively work towards more restaurants in the next few years. Currently, we have five franchised restaurants located in East Malaysia. We will be focusing on areas outside of Klang Valley, Johor Bharu and Penang.

The McDonald's franchising system is built on the belief that we can only achieve success if the franchisees are successful first. We believe in a partnering relationship with our owner operators, franchisees, suppliers and employees. Success for McDonald's flows from the success of our business partners.

In Malaysia, we are serious about developing suitable local entrepreneurs. Franchisees introduced into our system will benefit from our strong support. They will be in business for themselves but not by themselves.

We expect our franchisees to have good returns during the first few years and continued growth over the years. Based on McDonald's Malaysia's previous performance, we feel that this is the right time for the company to share our business with the local business community.

McDonald's has always been a franchising organisation in most parts of the world. Countries like Australia have about 70% of their restaurants franchised. We believe in being an equal opportunity franchisor.

We plan to grow the franchising aspect of our business in Malaysia progressively, from four restaurants to 25 restaurants over the next three years. Interested entrepreneurs who qualify are invited to join the McDonald's family as our franchisees and grow the business together.

We select prospective candidates based on the assessment of overall business experience and personal qualifications. We look for individuals with good "common business sense", a demonstrated ability to effectively lead and develop people and a history of previous successes in business and life endeavours.

We believe that there are many Malaysians who have all these traits and can be successful McDonald's franchisees. When we begin recruiting franchisees, we are actually offering a highly potential profitable business opportunity. In fact, we believe that we can contribute to the growth and strength of Malaysian SMI entrepreneurs by offering opportunities to those who have an interest in McDonald's.

Golden Arches Restaurants Sdn Bhd, the franchisor and Joint Venture company of McDonald's in Malaysia, has a majority local shareholding. We take pride in developing local entrepreneurs with our established franchising system, and through our good relationship with the Ministry of Entrepreneurs & Development and the Malaysian Franchising Association, we are confident that our common objectives can all be achieved.

• High personal integrity
  
• Entrepreneurial spirit and a strong desire to succeed
  
• Proven ability to motivate and train people
  
• Ability to manage finances
  
• Willingness to personally devote full time and best efforts to the day-to-day operations of the restaurant as an on-premises owner operator
  
• Willingness to participate in a training programme which may, on a full time basis, take one year or longer to complete
  
• Financial capability to finance the franchise

To ensure that we can accommodate the different kinds of people interested in our business, our franchise approach is flexible. Basically we offer two main types of franchise packages:

• Developmental, where the franchisee meets all costs of required investment.
  
• Conventional, where the cost of investment is shared between Golden Arches Restaurants Sdn Bhd and the franchisee.
  

The initial investment varies according to the type of restaurants, i.e. mall restaurants, shop front restaurants, drive-thru restaurants and special sites restaurants, like our restaurants along the KESAS Highway and petrol stations. Drive-thru restaurants will need the highest capital outlay. The total cost to build a McDonald's restaurant ranges from about RM1.5 million to RM3.5 million depending on the type of restaurant as mentioned previously.

The initial investment depends on the type of franchise package and restaurant.

Our franchise selection process is separate from our site selection process. In other words, we develop a location because we think it will be successful, regardless of who the franchisee may be.

We do not franchise restaurants to partners or investors. An individual must personally meet the financial qualifications and be willing to devote his or her full time and best efforts to the day-to-day operations of the restaurant. A franchisee must also successfully complete the McDonald's training programme.

However, we are willing to consider family funding provided that one family member is dedicated to running McDonald's on a full time basis.

We expect our franchisees to have good returns in the first few years. However, profitability also depends on a number of factors, including sales, location, occupancy and operating costs as well as the ability of the franchisee to manage and control the business. Questions related to profit and loss will be discussed during the interview process.