Former McDonald’s executive Woods Staton has been busy spreading the Golden Arches across Latin America. In 2007, his company Arcos Dorados (which means “Golden Arches” in Spanish) paid McDonald’s $700 million for 1,560 restaurants and the rights to operate McDonald’s in Latin America and the Caribbean. He now owns 1,880 outlets in 20 countries and territories. Revenues in 2011 reached $3.7 billion.
Burger King should feel right at home in any of his restaurants; he speaks English, Spanish, and Portuguese. (He was born in Colombia to a Brazilian father and Czech mother.) His net worth has dropped by $500 million since the previous year, as Arcos Dorados shares declined amid slower-than-expected growth and the depreciation of Brazil’s currency against the dollar. His McDonald’s restaurants cater to the local crowd: in addition to the standard Big Mac, they offer arepas in Venezuela, chicken with hogao sauce in Colombia, and Mexican cuisine in Mexico. Staton, whose grandfather Albert Staton founded Coca-Cola bottler Panamerican Beverages, became a billionaire in April 2011 when Arcos Dorados went public on the New York Stock Exchange.
Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. owns the master franchise for the McDonald’s fast-food chain in 20 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. It is the largest McDonald’s franchise in the world in terms of system-wide sales and number of restaurants. As of December 31, 2010, it represented 6.7% of all McDonald’s franchised restaurants worldwide. The company employs more than 94,000 people, making it one of the region’s largest employers of young first-time job holders. It serves over 4.3 million customers daily and is the largest quick service restaurant (QSR) chain in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The company operates its restaurants under the McDonald’s brand as both company-operated and franchised locations. Its revenue depends on sales made by company-operated restaurants and rental income from franchised ones. Rental income is based on a fixed base rate or a percentage of sales.