CELEB HOMES
Ray Kroc’s ranch
In the mid-1950s, Ray Kroc was a struggling milkshake mixer salesman who came up with the golden formula to turn fast food businesses into successful ventures. His involvement in and eventual ownership of McDonald’s is to this day the model for setting up, managing and controlling a restaurant brand in a multi-location franchise system.
Kroc’s huge success evolved into massive personal wealth, fame and philanthropy. In 1966, soon after McDonald’s went public, he acquired a California ranch as a retreat and think tank where many of McDonald’s menu items were conceived – including the McRib and ever popular Egg McMuffin.
Long after Ray’s death in 1984, his former J & R Double Arch Ranch, which is located in the Santa Ynez Valley near Santa Barbara, has been put up for sale and priced at US$ 29 million.
The ranch, which sits on a little over two square kilometres, contains a smorgasbord of residences, recreational amenities, barns, a spacious and versatile conference hall, and spaces for entertaining large groups of guests.
Its main lodge measures over 17,000 sq ft and has more than 20 bedroom suites, a commercial kitchen and a dining room that can seat up to 100 guests. The lodge living room, which measures 3,000 sq ft, has a massive fireplace for gatherings on chilly winter evenings. The Founder’s Building consists of a library, two bedroom suites, offices and a gym.
On the property are also five single residences, two bunkhouses, barns, corrals and paddocks. Water is provided from two lakes, five wells and three cisterns, which store 90,000 gallons.
Ray Kroc set the standard by which today’s successful fast food chains are designed to operate. His formula was simple: design a tasty menu without filler ingredients, train employees thoroughly including in public relations and then cast it all in stone with absolutely no deviations.
And franchise only one store at a time with no territories given. A franchisee can open the next store only after it’s proven that all the McDonald’s standards are met.
Kroc knew the importance of consistency in his product whether it was in San Diego, Stockholm or Japan. That was his golden formula.