“I’ve landed right where I should be: around real, authentic, genuine people from all walks of life ... a privilege you don’t always get in your career, but you do at McDonald’s”


Keesia Pearce is one of McDonald’s newest franchisees, taking over the high street outlet in Lewisham, South London.


So, we hear your restaurant opening was only weeks ago – it’s the store that’s local to where you grew up, is that right? Yes! It’s my childhood restaurant – first McDonald’s I ate in. The flat I grew up in was a stone’s throw from the restaurant, literally two minutes up the road! I remember when it was built in 1988, because I remember begging my mum to go and take me and my brother in there. But there’s a massive Caribbean community in the area we were part of, and so she would always buy us the famous Jamaican patty at the market nearby. One day my brother and I stood up to her, saying: “You’ve got to take us into McDonald’s. It’s been there for a year now and we’ve never visited!” Well, she gave in, and I had my first McDonald's meal there! To walk in for my first team meeting recently was just surreal.


On launch day I was like: “the


Lewisham girl is back!” That’s what I keep hearing in my head! We’ve got this grand staircase, the same layout as when I first visited, and I get flashbacks of the atmosphere, the excitement of this big American brand that hit our high streets with all of the warm hospitality, the vibe of McDonald’s. And that’s the vision I’ve got for the future – generating that magic that people have when they come to the restaurant. So when I see members of my community coming in and going up that staircase, for me it’s just… wow, it really touches the heart. No matter how or where I expand with McDonald’s, this will always be very special to me.


Why the move into franchising? I’d got to a stage in my career in the travel industry where I couldn’t go any further. Despite a diverse range of skills, I couldn’t quite find another role where I could really, authentically engage with people and get the best out of them. My husband said: “I think you should just run


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