Who Really Runs McDonald’s? Largest Franchisees who Hold Entire States

McDonald’s isn’t just a franchise brand — it’s the industry’s default reference point. The scale is real: 43,477 restaurants worldwide (13,559 in the U.S.) and $130.7B in 2024 systemwide sales.

Yet the most interesting story isn’t “McDonald’s the corporation” but its operators. Despite McDonald’s bags and cups saying “Locally owned and operated”, most locations are run by large multi-unit franchisees. In fact, McDonald’s has long favored experienced, well-capitalized multi-unit leaders who have the capacity to take on dozens of units. Let’s look at who these operators actually are.

Largest McDonald’s Franchisees

You can press on a specific franchisee to learn more about the number of units they operate.

• Michael L Retzer Jr.- 62 units- Michael L. Retzer Sr. is a prominent Republican politician from Mississippi who served as United States Ambassador to Tanzania from 2005 to 2007. His son is also a multi-unit McDonald’s operator.

• Valluzzo Companies was established in 2010 by John, Nicholas and Michael Valluzzo. Since then, they’ve expanded to 78 restaurants in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The three owner-operators received the prestigious Ronald award from McDonald’s in 2017. Locally, all three Valluzzo have received the Baton Rouge 40 Under 40 honor.

• Richard T Lommen, Jr.- 64 units- Father-son duo Rick and Dick Lommen are running McCourtesy together. Dick started with McDonald’s at 15 as a crew member. He worked his way through school and managed a McDonald’s out of college. He then purchased his first store and fast forward 50 years, now operates 64 with his son. You can see the org chart of their team below:

• Peter Napoli: 32 out 54 locations in New Hampshire & 13/25 in Vermont. Peter Napoli shares his story of building a McDonald’s empire as an immigrant from Italy in his book.
  

  Peter Napoli’s book about his McDonald’s experience

• Abelardo Martinez, III: 43 out of 295 locations in Arizona. Abelardo’s father, Abe Jr., has been in the McDonald’s franchise business for decades. Abelardo now operates 43 locations in Arizona and more across California and Nevada. Most recently, AMTCR, Inc. made headlines for paying nearly $2M for sexual harassment allegations from employees.

You can interact with the map below to learn more about how these franchisees are dispersed around the country.

• Brent Bohn: 37 out of 135 locations in Nevada Brent is the owner of WBF Management, operating 37 stores in Nevada and Arizona. Brent dropped out of college and discovered McDonald’s through his father-in-law

• Steven Kilian, Jr.: 48 out of 290 locations in Wisconsin. Steve began in the family McDonald’s business at age 12. In 2007 he joined his father as an Owner/Operator. Steve Kilian Sr. had started in 1987 with a downtown Milwaukee restaurant, expanded by purchasing two, and over the next three decades grew the organization into a major operator employing 2,500+ people. Today, Kilian Management operates 53 restaurants across Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, including 48 of Wisconsin’s 290 locations.

• Adrian T Smith: 37 out of 479 locations in North Carolina. The Smith Family has been in the McDonald’s business for nearly 40 years. James “Smitty” Smith first became a McDonald’s franchise owner in Houston, TX in 1984. Following his father’s lead, Adrian Smith opened his own franchise company, Ice Age Management

Franchisees with the most locations in their state

Below you can see a map and a listicle with the largest franchisees in each state. Most of them are included in the largest franchisees list above.

Franchisees with the most McDonald's locations in their state

• Kenneth P Kades: 38 out of 1248 locations in Texas. The Kades Corporation is operated by Ken and Mady known as a Houston “McFamily”. They own 38 locations employing over 3,000 people in over 18 townships. Ken began his career at McDonald’s as a crew person in Cleveland, Ohio in 1964. In 1982, he became an Owner/Operator in Texas City.

• David A Bear: 34 out of 642 locations in Illinois. Jerry and Marcelle Bear launched what became Bear Family Restaurants in 1967, buying the Larkin Avenue McDonald’s in Elgin from McDonald’s Corp. and growing it over the decades into more than 30 McDonald’s franchises across the Chicago area. Jerry’s son, David Bear, is now selling all of its McDonald’s restaurants, rebranding as BFRx Hospitality, and shifting into a new venture—opening eight K9 Resorts.

In the map below, you can click on the yellow dots to zoom in on a specific state and learn more about that particular franchisee.

Franchisees who own more than 40% of locations in their state

Little is publicly known about Michael Davidson, who owns 18 of Alaska’s 27 McDonald’s locations, and Michael J. Doherty, who controls 12 of North Dakota’s 28 locations. Let’s learn about a few more of them:

• Michael A Meoli: 17 out of 38 locations in Delaware- Michael A Meoli with Meoli Companies started within McDonald’s as a teenager. After college, Mike went full-time into his family’s McDonald’s business eventually rising to operate 37 restaurants in Virginia and across the Delmarva Peninsula with locations in Delaware and Maryland.

• Ronald Lydick: 25 out of 61 locations in Maine- Maine locations, including a historic Freeport location , are run by the Lydick family. Benjamin is one of the sons .

Largest Women Franchisees:

Largest Black Franchisees:

What does it mean?

When you map franchisees, you’re not mapping restaurants — you’re mapping local empires. What emerges is not a system of small local owners — but regional power operators running capital-intensive enterprises. So what does this actually mean financially?

According to 2025 QSR Magazine data, average unit volume (AUV) of a McDonald’s store is $4,002,000. The profit margin of corporately-owned stores is at 14.8% (according to the SEC data). Applying that margin to the average unit volume implies roughly $592,296 in operating income per store before franchise-level expenses. At multi-unit scale, these operators are managing businesses generating millions in annual operating income.

Here is how these numbers stack up against the closest competition in QSR: