FAST-FOOD restaurant franchisee Ahmed Khan is keen to see 250 workers at his McDonald’s restaurants pass through an apprenticeship scheme by the end of the year.

Khan took on three Metrocentre restaurants, one Metro Retail Park site and the Northumberland Street branch a year ago, and is investing £600,000 in the Cameron Park outlet as well as £550,000 in his green quadrant Metrocentre site. However, he is very keen to develop his staff as well as his facilities.

Khan said: “We offer all our employees the option of going into the apprenticeship programme, and the plan is to put 250 through this year. Next year we’re looking at potentially another 100 to 150 people.

“We’re giving the option to earn while working. It’s a big investment on our part, in terms of spending the time to train people. All the skills we provide are transferable, so to give them the opportunity to learn and grow as well as earn is a massive bonus. They don’t have to make a choice between getting an education and getting a job.”

A total of 43 staff have already completed the apprenticeship at Khan’s restaurants, and he hopes to arrange a graduation ceremony for the first batch at a later date. He expects to lose around 100 of his 400 staff to other jobs and college this year, but is hoping to replenish the workforce to reach around 500 by the end of the year.

Khan moved from London with his family last year, and is also hoping to expand his roster of restaurants in the near future if the opportunity should emerge.

He said: “We hired close to 300 people last year, which was probably overkill. The focus was to get up to 450 to get through the busy Christmas period, but with the snow we probably had about 50 more than we needed.

“Traditionally the drive-thru and retail park outlets do a lot better than the high street. But major high streets in places like Manchester, London and here are still doing well. We’ve grown sales by double digits over the last three years. Northumberland Street is probably in the top 20 busiest restaurants in the UK, and we’re over capacity at peak times.

“We’ve kept our core customers who just want a Big Mac or some of the other traditional food we do. They may come twice or four times a month. The growth has come from attracting new customers. We have free wi-fi so people come in with laptops and we sell vast amounts of coffee. We also offer premium tier products, as well as wraps and deli sandwiches.

“If we offer what our customers want, they’ll continue to come to us.”