Hopper wins national honor

Bobby Hopper

GREENCASTLE -- As general manager of the McDonald's restaurant in Greencastle, Bobby Hopper is dedicated to serving his customers and the community.

That dedication was recognized in a big way recently when Hopper was awarded the McDonald's Corp.'s 2009 Outstanding Restaurant Manager Award.

"The Outstanding Restaurant Manager Award is a nation-wide honor that recognizes managers from owner-operator and McOpCo restaurants for performance above and beyond the average norm," information at the McDonald's corporate Web site said. "This award recognizes up to 10 percent of our top restaurant managers across the entire United States system."

Hopper was honored Wednesday when he attended the annual store managers' meeting at the Colts Pavilion in Indianapolis.

"That was when I found out I won the award," he said. "It was a complete surprise."

Criteria for the award include operational excellence, customer service and business building. Selection teams from each region are formed, and those teams review nominations and select award winners.

"This really sets us apart as a store and an organization," Hopper said.

Hopper was humble about the honor.

"It's not me who did it," he said. "It's the managers and the crew and the way they treat the customers. This is a small town, and the trick is to make (the Greencastle McDonald's) a place people want to come back to, and they have made that happen."

Hopper said the Greencastle store's sales and guest counts increased last year. In addition, scores on an employee commitment survey, which measures how happy employees are at their jobs, increased 12 percent.

"We have very low turnover here, which is very rare in this business," Hopper said.

Hopper, who has worked for McDonald's for two-and-a-half years, was quick to point out that his staff has also won an award recently.

The corporation's Super Saturday contest rates stores on transactions, kitchen times, counter times and drive through cars. The Greencastle store is currently ranked third its region, which includes 600 stores.

"They're consistently in the top," Hopper said. "They've done a great job."

The Greencastle McDonald's, which is in the Indianapolis corporate region, is under the Jedele Enterprises umbrella. Jedele also owns McDonald's restaurants in Cloverdale, Crawfordsville, Brazil and Mooresville.