Courtesy Corporation of Wisconsin took over three formerly locally-owned McDonald’s restaurants Wednesday — two in Austin and one in Albert Lea.

Dave Scherer, of Austin, had owned both Austin locations since 2002 and sold them this month. The restaurant on Oakland Avenue had been in the Scherer family for 40 years.

The three McDonalds restaurants purchased from Scherer by Courtesy Corp. are located at 1009 Oakland Ave., 1402 14 St. SW and 2808 Bridge Ave., Albert Lea.

“We are very excited to be in this town,” Courtesy Corp. president Rick Lommen said at the Oakland Avenue store Wednesday.

The corporation took over the Rochester market eight years ago.

“Coming to Austin is the next step,” he said.

Courtesy Corporation is based in Onalaska, Wis. The franchise of McDonald’s now owns and operates 42 restaurants in western Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota and Decorah, Iowa.

The company plans to tear down and rebuild the restaurant on Oakland in spring of 2010. The Albert Lea location will also undergo significant renovations, Lommen said.

All employees at the three McDonald’s were asked to reapply for their positions. The majority were hired to work for the Courtesy Corporation, Lommen said.

Customers in the store Wednesday complained to Lommen about certain longtime employees not being re-hired.

Lommen did not comment on the hiring procedure, other than to say that Courtesy Corporation has very high standards.

The company plans to hire 40 additional employees at each restaurant.

As a whole, Courtesy Corporation employs more than 3,000 people.

“As a company we do employ a lot of high schoolers, who we very seriously train,” he said.

“We want them to learn valuable job skills whether they become longtime employees, or take those skills into other careers,” he added.

Lommen calls the company an “education first employer.”

Courtesy Corporation offers a scholarship program through which employees can select to have 50 cents deducted from their paycheck for each hour worked, to be matched by the company up to $4,000. The funds are deposited into an interest-bearing savings account.

Courtesy Corporation was started by Rick’s father Dick, who began working at McDonald’s in LaCrosse 50 years ago, as a 15-year-old high school student. When Rick wanted to join the family business, his father insisted he start as an overnight janitor at the McDonald’s in Mauston, Wis. — to help him learn every corner of the company, according to a LaCrosse Tribune report.

McDonald’s have been in the Scherer family for a similar length of time. Scherer’s grandmother, Dorothy Irish, opened the first McDonalds of the family in Mason City, Iowa in 1959.

Scherer continues to own three other McDonalds. He owns two in Albert Lea and one in Clear Lake, Iowa.