Rockford area’s biggest McDonald’s franchisee pushes into growth phase
ROCKFORD — Decades before he owned his first McDonald’s restaurant, Guy Bucciferro’s days would start with a pre-dawn commute to help his father open one of the family’s first franchises.
It was 1996, and Bucciferro’s father had purchased a McDonald’s in Ottawa while they were still living in Downer’s Grove. Before the start of his high school classes, Bucciferro would get up at 2:30 a.m. and load into a work van with his father.
“He threw this little twin mattress in the back for me and I would sleep in the back of the van. We would drive out and we would open the restaurant together,” he said…