The Star’s monthly trade & industry focus July 2014 Business MONTHLY How sweet... a Franco becomes crafty new way the Big Mac at to network PAGE 26 McDonald’s PAGE 3 Agriculture is a case of like father, FARMING STAYS like son: FAMILY MATTER PAGE 5 Lawyer shows her True Colours in our Smarten Up The Boss makeover: Page 23 2 THE STAR www.thestar.co.uk Wednesday, July 2, 2014 BUSINESS SHOWCASING BUSINESSES n innovative fit- Départ International Busi- Leaders of over 30 leading to track performance and Jo Davison – EDITOR ness system that ness Festival in Sheffield. businesses will be showcas- recovery. aspires to help Sport Tech Match is part ing their skills and services. Details of free workshops, win the global of a packed programme of MIE Medical Research seminars and conferences race is among the activity at the English In- Limited will be demonstrat- are at www.letour.york- technology being stitute of Sport from today ing FitQuest, an innovative shire.com/cycling-culture- Ashowcased at the Grand until Friday. instrument that can be used and-business. Le Tour - think of it as a giant selfie ’ll be honest. Since in the world swooping to- ditching my broth- wardS Attercliffe. er’S fake Raleigh The Tour de France is Chopper in a hedge on our patch. Not that because my Free- you’d know it. I went down Time to switch man’s flares kept Winco’s Newman Road and Igettingca ught in the chain, up the soon-to-be-legen- I haven’t cycled much. dary Jenkin Road one-in- A family day à velo in the three (by car; don’t be silly) to smarter Loire. A few hours in Sher- yesterday. A bit of yellow wood Forest, a timid at- bunting here and there. tempt at a mountain trail in A bike the colour of Bird’S the Scottishbor ders, c’est custard on a garage roof. driving tout. I enjoyed the down- The council had cut the hill, standing on the pedals, grass and waS doing a bit of carefree as a kid, hated the last-minute Tarmac-ing. hills. And the morning-af- That waS it. ter agony of crushed nether Come the day, I pray it’s a Lowercosts regions. different scene. You don’t I’ll never understand the appreciate the Verity-ble Higher standards passion shared by those miracle that got Le Tour who take to their bikeS here? You can’t see how every chance they get and Sheffield will gain a penny risk life, limb and head of the £100m the race will injury by the seat of their bring to the region? Lycra pants. I know numer- You need to believe in the ouS who have bust and torn wide-reaching power of PR this and that – and can only and marketing. Globally, guess at the state of their millions upon millions will genitals. see us lining our streets. But come Sunday, I will Think of it as one enor- be yelling my lungs out in mous selfie. Put down the Firth Park and Wincobank Sunday papers. Hang fire as the peloton passes, then with the roast. Get out on attempting to beat the pack streetS that, for one day as I sprint to the hospital- only, will be the route of the Businesses can shrink ity stands at Meadowhall to greatest cycling race in the catch the best Lycra loonies world. And say cheese. thegrowing costs of car @ [email protected] fleets withEco-Business Driving. • Administrators/Secretaries/PAs • HR/Training • Accountancy &Finance Smarter driving savesmoney withlower • Export/Languages fuel and maintenance costs. Youcan improve • Sales/Business Development driversafetyand standards, whilst reducing • Marketing/PR carbon emissions. 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ROTHERHAM LAD IS BIG CHEESE AT MCDONALD’S School pupil, who had grown one “as a treat.” JO DAVISON [email protected] up on Doncaster Road, make The VP’s daughter, a girl @starbizmonthly it to the top of a billion dollar who could amass the biggest global brand? stash of Happy Meal collecta- “What did they see in me? bles at the bat of an eyelid, hen the very first Probably my willingness does seem to be exercising McDonald’s ar- to learn and my eagerness her own control, though; rived in Rother- to take on responsibility,” “She doesn’t like chips or ham, 16-year-old he says. “And the fact that I fizzydrinks. She prefers her Franco Ventura was willing to work Friday burger with water and a fruit was seriously un- nights...” bag,” says dad. Wderwhelmed. While his friends and In numerous studies, fast While his friends rushed young colleagues hit the food has been blamed for the to worship under the arches town in their payday glad- obesity epidemic but, says of the golden M at the veri- rags to mark the end of the Franco: “It’s very easy to sole- table altar of American fast week, Franco would be clad ly blame the food we eat. food, Franco was bemused by in his blue and white Maccy- “Obesity in the UK is a all the fuss. Dee’s uniform and paper serious and complex issue. His parents hailed from hat, making shakes, flipping There are so many contribut- Southern Italy - and he had burgers and shaking fries. ing factors. You could just as grown up on the food his “On Saturday nights I was easily blame the car indus- mama always made. out with them, though. Our try; we don’t walk anywhere “I was 13 before I had pack- circuit was Feeoffees, El- anymore. I put weight on et cereal,” he said. “I stayed liott’s, McGinty’s and the at 18 but it wasn’t because I over at a friend’s for the first Adam & Eve,” he recalls. It’s was eating at McDonald’s: it time and the next morning a safe guess there was a late- was because I had passed my he handed me this box...” night quarter-pounder with driving test. He had never ventured as cheese before home, too. “We serve three million far as the McDonald’s in what McDonald’s has a respect- UK people every day and our seemed like far-flung Shef- ed graduate management customers visit us two or field and had never tasted training programme, but three times a month, which Yankee-style fast food. some 80 per cent of its UK is not excessive. We have Though you’d think an managers started out like introduced calorie-counted inaugural bite of burger and him and learned the busi- menus, salads and wraps. fries would be the lure when ness from the bottom up. “I think obesity is a society he walked through the doors “People findou t the oppor- thing, not a McDonald’s.” of the hotly-anticipated new tunities when they join and The Rotherham venue is restaurant in Rotherham’s that the training you get is now one of the firstin the UK Bridgegate, it was a job he exceptional,” he says. to boast a high-tech makeo- was after. He got more than “There is no ageism and if ver, with self-service kiosks, he bargained for. Though not From Bramley to Bologna : Franco fliesthe world at the hlem of McDonalds. you have the appetite for re- digital menu boards, tablet more than he could chew. sponsibility, you are given it. computers on tables and free Working part-time around At 17 I was managing people Wi-Fi. Did he have a hand in his HND in catering at in their 30s.” that? “Well, there was a list Rotherham College of Art Franco Ventura’s After a stint in Italy train- ow of Rotherham’s All Saints’ Along the way, the 44-year- of restaurants I could have and Technology for £1.48 ing up staffat 140 newly Church was super-sized. He old has gained a clutch of selected and Rotherham was an hour, he so impressed rise to the top at acquired restaurants and was appointed the REALLY professional qualifications - on it...” he says. his bosses, they promoted McDonald’s was as another in Northern Ire- Big Mac - McDonald’s vice and a taste for his company’s “Rotherham is going him. At the tender age of land developing its growing president of operations. products: “I love Big Macs through visionary changes; 17 he became a manager at fast as the food market, he worked on the With responsibility for now; I have one whenever I people are fighting for it. It’s the Rotherham outlet - and Extended Hours strategy 400 restaurants, plus the can. And whenever I’m work- brilliant that we are a part of promptly quit his studies for for the UK to ensure restau- company’s UK services, safe- ing at one of our stores, that’s that and McDonald’s IS com- what he believed was a prom- rants were equipped with ty and hygiene teams -around where I eat,” he says.