Business Spotlight - Klak Management Corp

2/29/2016 (Permalink)

McDonalds in Union, MO - Dec 2015 Flooding

Mike Klak and his wife Deb own and operate four restaurants in Franklin County, including Washington, Pacific, St. Clair and Union, as well as four in St. Louis County — Allenton, Eureka, Peerless Park and Bowles Avenue, Fenton. They have owned McDonald’s locations in this area for 39 1/2 years. Mike Klak has been with the company for 57 years and Deb has been with the company for 52 years.
Mike Klak first started working as a crew member for a McDonald’s licensee in his hometown of Rock Island, Ill., in 1958, at the age of 15.
As he continued with his education after high school, Klak said he wanted to be an engineer. But he found that he was making more money and having more fun at McDonald’s. Over the years, though, he has used a lot of the engineering skills he gained at school while building stores and perfecting equipment.
In about 1967, Klak was promoted to supervisor in the “quad cities,” of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa and Moline/East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois. He was responsible for the operation of 15 McDonald’s locations in the Chicago and the Quad Cities area. In 1968, the McDonald’s Corporation acquired those 15 stores and Klak began working for the corporation.
Klak later moved to St. Louis and took over all the franchise stores in Missouri Tennessee, Kansas, Kentucky and Nebraska — a total of 400 stores.
From 1970-77, Klak oversaw the building of 25 restaurants per year as the director of sales service.
While working for the corporation, Klak was offered the opportunity to purchase his own store in 1977. The Klaks chose Washington as their home and opened the Washington restaurant in 1977. Klak said he’s most proud of moving to Washington, raising a family and continuing on the path of owning and operating McDonald’s restaurants.
The Union McDonald’s restaurant opened Dec. 9, 1992. The Klaks have decided to rebuild the Union restaurant to replace the current one damaged by the record-breaking flood in late December.
After the flood, Klak said she and her husband evaluated several things in deciding whether to remodel or rebuild, including structural damage, ADA improvements to be made and updating the theme.
“There was a lot of structural damage,” said Klak, noting the restaurant had about 5 feet of floodwater in the building.
Klak said she expects to break ground on the new restaurant by the beginning or middle of March. The building will be made of stone and brick, as opposed to plasterboard as it was before. A completion date has not yet been set.
The business will seek local vendors for electric, plumbing, ductwork, equipment installation and landscaping.
SERVPRO of Franklin County was pleased to assist Mike and Deb Klak with restoring items within the store that were salvagable.
There’s never a convenient time for flooding or water damage to strike your business. Every hour spent cleaning up is an hour of lost revenue and productivity. So when an emergency situation arises in your business, give us a call and we’ll be there fast with the help you need.

Water Damage or Flooding? Call Us Today (636) 583-5200

Articles from eMissourian:
http://m.emissourian.com/local_news/business/union-mcdonald-s-to-be-rebuilt-after-flood
http://m.emissourian.com/klak-honoredfor-his-years-with-mcdonald-sn-started-at-age