Ex-Macca’s king Keith Beer sells final Toowoomba restaurant, 27 years after building first store

Keith Beer was one of the original McDonald’s kings, with several stores in Toowoomba and the Darling Downs. Now the last restaurant in his collection has been sold off, and he’s happy to be moving on.

Keith Beer’s decision to sell off the last of his McDonald’s empire was as pragmatic as his business choices have been since he opened his first one back in 1994.

“I still had 14 years left on that license and I didn’t want to be 81 with a walking stick yelling about Big Macs,” he laughed.

The Toowoomba property developer has parted ways with the last of his McDonald’s outlet, the highly profitable Harristown restaurant.

Mr Beer, who used to own the Wilsonton and Clifford Gardens locations before he sold them to new Maccas king Mark Ward a few years ago, realised now was the time to exit the hospitality sector.

“I’ll still keep poking around, but I’m retiring from McDonald’s,” he said.

“McDonald’s is a fast-paced environment, (with) the revolution it’s going through with technology, Uber Eats and data tech.

“We were keeping up with it, it’s a great system, but there’s a whole world you’ve got to change with.

“The time was right, the money was right and we just thought we should slow up a bit.”

The sale paves the way for another fast food empire to form, with existing franchisees Kym and Hamish Munro adding Harristown to their existing restaurants in Chinchilla and Dalby.

Mrs Munro, who ironically owns the first outlet Mr Beer developed in 1994, said the time was right to snap up a prized Toowoomba asset.

“Keith was really good to deal with, we first spoke in December and the deal was done in March,” she said.

TEAM EFFORT: Kym and Hamish Munro, with kids Max and Frankie, now own three McDonald’s restaurants between Chinchilla and Toowoomba. Photo Matthew Newton

“Being in Toowoomba has really opened us up — now we’ve got a big market and a cracking store.

“Everything has worked out well, Keith was ready to sell and we were ready to expand.”

McDonald’s is looking to build a new restaurant in Harlaxton, with Mr Ward the most likely person to add to his collection of stores.