AN Antrim fit-out firm with strong links to McDonald’s has been awarded the contract for a new drive-through restaurant in Magherafelt.
Planning permission for the £1 million development next to Lidl’s site on Castledawson Road was granted by Mid Ulster District Council in April 2023.
A tenant for the restaurant unit has not yet been announced, but industry monitor Construction Information Services (CIS) Ireland has reported that Marcon is due to begin work on the site in January 2024.
The Antrim firm has an extensive history with fast food giant McDonald’s.
Marcon has worked on dozens of McDonald’s modernisation projects across the island of Ireland and Britain in recent years.
In 2020 and 2021 it completed 131 drive-through upgrades and is currently working on a ‘convenience of the future’ programme, involving 78 restaurants throughout 2022 and 2023.
Marcon also has a record of building new McDonald’s restaurants, with its website listing 15 new units it has built for the global restaurant brands to date across the island of Ireland and England.
The list includes new build McDonald’s in Larne, Antrim, Banbridge and Belfast’s Boucher Road.
The planning drawings approved for the new Magherafelt drive through appear to match the brown and black colour scheme for McDonald’s.
But Marcon also has a relationship with a number of other major restaurant brands, including Tim Hortons, Ben & Jerry’s, Chopstix, Yangtze, Synge & Byrne and Freshly Chopped.
The business behind the planning application is Co Tyrone firm Ardboe Developments, headed by Brian and Shauna Forbes.
