Ray Kroc founded the company that became the McDonald’s Corporation after acquiring the McDonald brothers’ business rights.
Kroc was a milkshake-mixer salesman who became interested in Richard and Maurice McDonald’s highly efficient restaurant in San Bernardino, California. He obtained the rights to franchise the concept nationally and opened the first McDonald’s franchise operated under his organization in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955.
Kroc did not invent the original Speedee Service System. The McDonald brothers had already developed the limited-menu, high-speed operation. Kroc’s major contribution was expanding and standardizing the concept through franchising, real-estate strategy, and centralized corporate management.
The company later purchased the McDonald brothers’ remaining business interests in 1961. That transaction helped establish the corporate structure and brand expansion associated with modern McDonald’s, although the brothers remained the original creators of the restaurant system.