{"id":244420,"date":"2017-01-13T06:06:20","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T20:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=244420"},"modified":"2017-01-13T06:06:20","modified_gmt":"2017-01-12T20:06:20","slug":"ayuyu-buys-mcdonalds-guam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/ayuyu-buys-mcdonalds-guam\/","title":{"rendered":"Ayuyu buys McDonald\u2019s Guam"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"McDonald\u2019s<\/a>
McDonald\u2019s Middle Road branch gets ready for the lunchtime rush. (Erwin Encinares)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Saipan-based businessman has purchased all six branches of the McDonald\u2019s franchise in Guam in mid-2016.<\/p>\n

Jose \u201cJoe\u201d Ayuyu Sr. now owns all six branches of McDonald\u2019s in the most populous island of Micronesia, Guam, and the largest island of the CNMI. <\/p>\n

The Ayuyu family owns the McDonald\u2019s franchise on Saipan and maintains two branches here: the main branch on Middle Road and at the Mobil gas station in Garapan.<\/p>\n

Joe Ayuyu Jr., general manager of McDonald\u2019s Middle Road, told Saipan Tribune that his parents have been querying with the McDonald\u2019s Corp. for several years now if they could set up a store in Guam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just so happens that it was the right time, and finally, the corporation said yes. [Joe Ayuyu] acted quickly and when they offered it to him, [he] accepted,\u201d said Ayuyu Jr.<\/p>\n

Guam McDonald\u2019s Tamuning branch has been doing business in Guam for 45 years. <\/p>\n

Ayuyu Jr. said it was being run by the corporation, which is headquartered in Chicago, but had a regional office in Hawaii.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Saipan, we are a franchise restaurant, and so that is how he was able to buy it. He bought it straight from the corporation,\u201d said Ayuyu Jr.<\/p>\n

The official takeover date for the Guam branches was on May 1, 2016. He declined to specify the purchase terms.<\/p>\n

Future plans<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNow that the business has expanded a lot, we are now getting more of our family involved,\u201d said Ayuyu Jr.<\/p>\n

Ayuyu Jr. said his father decided to keep the staff during the transition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expanded our office by hiring some new administrative people. We do have staff in Guam. They have an office there, and my dad made it a point to keep everybody on board. During the transition, everybody was guaranteed their jobs so long as they continue to do what they were doing and meet the company standards. We ended up keeping everybody,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ayuyu Jr. owes it to the experienced staff in Guam for helping them during the transition.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf the 45 years that McDonald\u2019s Guam has been operating, some of them have been with the company for 20 to 30 years. We are lucky to have them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Having the same owner means both Saipan and Guam McDonald\u2019s offices are collaborating and sharing ideas. However, the offices would remain separate due to the sheer size of the Guam market.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a big business and it takes somebody really experienced to manage there. Here on Saipan, I am in charge with the help of my mom, Marcia Ayuyu, and my sister, Mable Ayuyu,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ayuyu Jr.\u2019s goal at the moment is to become a certified owner of the franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am currently undergoing training, which is a prerequisite to become a certified owner\/operator. Some years back, my mom became a certified owner\/operator, and that eventually is my goal,\u201d said Ayuyu Jr.<\/p>\n

Expansion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The factors that dictate a McDonald\u2019s decision to open up a new branch is the population and the economy. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith all the military buildup and the strong tourist presence, we are looking to open a new location [in Guam] by the end of 2017,\u201d said Ayuyu Jr.<\/p>\n

The Ayuyus are still juggling with the idea of expanding on Saipan, considering its significantly lower population compared to Guam. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur challenge now is that the [McDonald\u2019s Garapan] store is very limited in space, which is why we don\u2019t serve all of McDonald\u2019s products there. In the Middle Road branch, we can accommodate all the equipment we need to prepare certain food orders. We would love to [serve our consumers], but realistically, there is nothing we can do,\u201d said Ayuyu Jr. <\/p>\n

The possibility of a McDonald\u2019s branch in Kagman has been discussed but nothing solid remains, according to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have plans for expansion on Saipan yet, but we are keeping it in mind. People have been talking about Kagman and the southern area, so we are remaining open to possibilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Other brands<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although the family has yet to discuss it, Ayuyu Jr. is open to the idea of purchasing another franchise brand\u2014when the time is right. \u201cWe\u2019ll see,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I can tell you is Saipan and Guam\u2019s economy is growing, so there is a possibility to open more stores. I think we would look into that first before branching out into other businesses. I haven\u2019t talked to the boss about that, but what I can say about my dad is he is an entrepreneur\u2014he is always looking for new things. All I can really say is we have to wait and see,\u201d said Ayuyu Jr.<\/p>\n

Ayuyu Jr. said the community is just really proud of Ayuyu Sr.\u2019s accomplishments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just really proud of him. I know that his friends, family, and the people of Saipan are proud of what he\u2019s done and what kind of example he sets for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Saipan-based businessman has purchased all six branches of the McDonald\u2019s franchise in Guam in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":244432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[56,51,1306,67],"class_list":["post-244420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-business-3","tag-guam","tag-middle-road","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}