Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Mcdonald’s high street branch shut for £1m makeover
Modernised restaurant will open in six weeks ‘It’s going to be a full refurbishment upstairs and downstairs’
Canterbury’s high street Mcdonald’s has shut its doors for the summer for a makeover costing more than £1 million.
The seven-week refurbishment will see the busy 24-hour branch completely ripped out and the introduction of table service, touch-screen ordering and computer tablets for customers.
It takes places while many of the city’s thousands of students have gone home for the holidays – a deliberate move by bosses.
“It definitely is a factor,” said area supervisor Jon Kavanagh. “Students make up a huge part of the market for us, and even quite a lot of our staff are students.
“Canterbury is very touristheavy in the summer, but the tourists are outweighed quite heavily by the students. It’s all about the needs of the business, really.we’ll be opening a few weeks before Freshers Week, which is a very busy time for us.”
The restaurant in St George’s Street will be the 13th of franchisee Paul Crocker’s 17 branches to be refurbished under the Made for You platform.
It closed on Monday and will reopen on Thursday, August 31.
All tables will be fitted with tablets so visitors can browse the internet, scroll through Facebook or play games.
Customers will be able to order their food from 16 touch-screen kiosks – 10 of them downstairs and six upstairs.
“The number of them is pretty much unprecedented,” Mr Kavanagh said. “I’ve been to some of the busy West End restaurants and the most I’ve seen is 12. The average is four.
“They’re great if you want to avoid the queues – you can choose to takeaway or have your food taken to your table.”
A troublesome lift out of action for years will also be replaced, allowing disabled people and families with buggies to easily access the first floor.
“It’s going to be a full refurbishment upstairs and downstairs. We’ll take the floors out, the ceilings down, the wall coverings off – we’re starting again,” Mr Kavanagh said.
“It’s going to be completely unrecognisable. We’re sure people will be blown away by it.”
Mr Kavanagh added that the investment will also create 20 to 30 new jobs at the restaurant.