A McBoost for Newtown’s economy

McDonald's is inching closer to being open every minute of the day in Newtown following a £300,000 investment.

The Newtown fast food restaurant has emerged from the economic gloom as a shining light which has more than doubled its workforce over the past seven years with its owner claiming they are now ‘busier than ever’.

And its major refurbishment which has seen state-of-the-art equipment installed, has now been completed with its fresh face already on show 24 hours on Friday and Saturday with plans to open it around the clock seven days a week.

“We are a lot busier now than we were back in 2003 when I took over,” said the Newtown McDonald's franchise owner, Hari Samrai. “It has been progressive but business has been picking up steadily.

“It is important to give the customer what they want. We are now open from 5am five days a week and 24 hours on a Friday and Saturday with a view to moving towards opening 24 hours a day seven days a week. We started with a staff of 30 seven years ago and with our recent recruitment drive we now have 62 full and part time staff.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Samrai added that he does not believe another McDonald's will open in Montgomeryshire adding: “They tend to only look at towns with a catchment area of 20,000 and the A483 is already well served with the restaurants in Chirk and Newtown so I can’t see it happening myself.”