The city’s McDonalds franchise will be extending its operation to 24 hours a day, seven days a week after the success of a 10-week trial of non-stop trading on weekends.

So regardless of whether you are up late watching television or making your way home from a night out, you will be able to call in and grab a bite to eat.

Franchisee Peter Lewsam said figures from the weekend-only trial suggested a market in late night trading and he believed the move to 24-hour trading would be a success.

“We were quite surprised with how popular it was on weekends,” Mr Lewsam said.

“I’ve owned the franchise for about seven years and the idea has always been in the back of my head but we bit the bullet and decided to give it a go.

“I didn’t know if there would be a market but the figures were genuinely surprising.”

Trade will be normal during the regular 6am to 11pm trading time but after 11pm will be drive-thru only.

And in the early stages at least, drive-thru does not mean walk-thru.

“In October we will be doing a revamp of the drive-thru which will include a walk-thru facility,” Mr Lewsam said.

“At the moment it is a bit risky due to it being dark and having people wandering through the area with cars.

“But in the revamp we plan to add a section for customers on foot because we believe there will be people keen to do that.”

A total of about 10 positions have been created for the new shifts, however Mr Lewsam said they were looking for more workers. However be warned, the new night shift revolves around 10pm to 6am shifts.

“There’s a few night owls out there keen to work the late shift which is good,” he said.

“It’s good that we are able to help people out and create jobs.”

Mr Lewsam also owns stores in Wellington and Mudgee however he said neither of those stores would be moving into 24-hour operation.

“Those towns are a little quieter than Dubbo so we don’t have any plans for opening 24 hours,” he said.

“However, we are looking at opening at 5am, particularly at Wellington, and possibly closing a bit later also.”

ben.walker@ruralpress.com