After 28 years Leeton McDonalds franchisee Brad Carroll is overseeing the construction of his fifth McDonald’s restaurant in Canberra.

The father of three currently employs more than 500 people across his four existing ”Maccas” restaurants in Manuka, Molonglo Valley, Weston and Westfield Woden. This new one will push the total crew members under his watch towards 700.

Brad has also been recognised as one of Canberra’s key employers for ”Inclusion in Employment” at the ACT Chief Minister’s Inclusion Awards in 2022.

He said he had looked to do a trade at the end of year 12, but got the McDonald’s bug and loved working there.

One thing led to another and he was promoted to restaurant manager after finishing school. Still in his late teens, he and his wife Kate bought their first property when they realised that by doing up houses and selling them, they could turn a handsome sum. They bought their first McDonald’s franchise in 2010.

This grew to two restaurants, then a third, and a fourth, all still in Wagga. From there, they expanded to two more in Leeton and Temora before moving to Canberra in 2015.

“I guess being young and ambitious, we were sort of landlocked where we were,” Brad says.

“An opportunity came up in Canberra to run two restaurants. We always like visiting Canberra to see friends so we thought, why not?”

The new venture in Phillip is the first in the area to offer a drive-through.

“McDonald’s Australia finds the sites, based on all kinds of things – demographics, if there’s a major highway or thoroughfare going through, population growth, and what other industries are nearby,” he said.

Construction on the restaurant is scheduled to take 30 weeks, with completion pencilled in for the end of October.