BY TYLER ELSON
John Piper, the owner of Piper Foods McDonalds, has recently purchased two more Oakville stores, making him a five-store owner. Piper said that as soon as he heard the news that another owner was selling,”I jumped right on that and never looked back”.
The accident at the 3rd Line location left a cyclist without a leg as he got pinned up to a wall in the drive-thru and was hospitalized for a month. It happened at one of the locations he purchased, the other being Bronte. Piper now owns the McDonald’s restaurants at Wal-mart, Iroquois Shore, Cross Avenue, Bronte, and Third Line. The Sheridan Sun spoke with Piper about his recent acquisitions.
Piper credits himself and the people he works with for encouraging him to buy these new stores and extend the Piper foods family to include more personnel, expand the Piper Foods brand and attract many more customers.
“This was a huge step in growing our McDonald’s Brand and I can not wait for what the future has in store,” Piper said. Although owning five McDonald’s can be challenging and very time-consuming, Piper said he is up for the challenge and really just wants to run the best stores with the best employees in order to make everyone happy.
Piper studied at the University of Western for science and business and after graduating he was starting to move his way up the McDonald’s chain. In 1984 Piper became a full-time salary manager and then six years later in 1990 he got promoted and transferred to Windsor as a supervisor manager. “John is just a great person, it’s either he’s out supporting the community and helping with our hospital or working in his office trying to make this workplace the best place possible” said Salil Dua, the McDonald’s manager at the Wal-Mart and Iroquois location.
Iroquois Shore McDonald’s is one of the most successful and busiest locations in all of Canada as it came second place in a burger-selling challenge involving 100 stores around the country. “The main reason on expanding our company was because of how much success we are having in this location and to me it is not about taking, it is about giving back to this amazing community,” Piper said.
With his purchase of two more McDonald’s in Oakville, Piper now owns five franchises in the area. This means that all of his now 300-plus employees can choose any location they want to work at and can pick up shifts from other locations as well.
It is also is beneficial for the employees as if they live near one, go to school near one, basically they can now choose which ever McDonald’s they want to work at.
“I think it’s great, now I can go straight from school to work without having to worry about being late or finding a ride there,” said Jaylen Diaz, a Holy Trinity high school student and a McDonald’s employee. “It used to take me an hour to walk to work because it was far from school, but now it takes me maybe five minutes because I can transfer to the closer location. I love it,” Jacob Renpenning said.
This is a new chapter in Piper’s life and he cannot wait to get started. He looks forward to all the positives of expanding but he knows this means many more work hours and stress. He is ready for the challenge, and maybe one day he will pass on these stores to his own children.