Bringing smiles to families in Guatemala has been her mission since the 70’s, our QUEEN SHEVA of this Wednesday has a well-known redhead as a partner. She is Yolanda de Cofiño.
Yolanda and her late husband, Jose María Cofiño, brought the franchise of McDonald’s to Guatemala in the early 1970s. It was the first franchise business model in the country. After just a year and a half of being in business, their manager ran the company into bankruptcy. With no one wanting to buy the franchise of off them, they had to find ways to survive this unfortunate start of their business. It was then that Yolanda, who was in charge of the marketing department, decided to treat the restaurant more like a family restaurant and started to focus more on the children.
Yolanda had her office at the back of their first restaurant and she would roam the place while watching people’s behavior. Frustrated by the fact that mothers would come in with their 4-5 children (Guatemalans tend to have big families) to eat Big Macs and the children would stop eating after a couple of bites, she came up with the idea of providing a children’s menu option in 1978. She called it the Ronald menu, and it included a regular burger, smaller soda, small fries, a sunday and some small cheap toy, all for a lower price. That was the start of what we call now the Happy Meal. Now that’s what we call a win-win-win, or a triple smile. Happy parents, happy kids and happy Yolanda.
When they first started out, Yolanda thought running a McDonald’s restaurant would be just like running a household but much bigger, but she also knew she needed to know about the hamburger business. As a smart business owner, Yolanda attended the Hamburger University in Illinois where she would participate in seminars, special courses and conventions. It was at one of those trips to a seminar in Chicago, where she got introduced to the Ronald McDonald House and what they were doing with the program. And as the determined woman she is known to be, she immediately said “I want that!”. Hence in 2005, the first Ronald McDonald House in Guatemala opened it’s doors. It was a safe haven for families who came to the city and needed a place to stay while their child received medical treatment. Today, Guatemala has 3 Ronald McDonald Houses that provide shelter, meals and entertainment for families traveling to the city because of health problems.
Plus, they now have the Ronald McDonald Foundation that focuses on the subject of malnutrition, providing houses to those in extreme poverty, undergoing heart surgery and others.
With more than 80 restaurants in Guatemala and the rest of Central America, Yolanda and her kick ass team at McDonald’s have been pioneers in the story of McDonald’s. Not only did they invent the Happy Meal but also Express Delivery, Auto McCafé and children’s celebrations at their locations.
Yolanda, now 81, is a wondrous woman who’s still in the game of bringing smiles to the children of Guatemala. Now that’s a QUEEN SHEVA.
Some of our favorite quotes of Yolanda are:
It was very hard and a great effort to change the situation, to get our clientele back. My husband wanted to sell it but I said not, I told him it was like giving birth.
The best way to shush the critics, is to prove them wrong.
The only thing I think about is that no one is indispensable. When i’m gone, nothing will stop. It will continue to exist and maybe even better.
