McDonald’s opened its new drive-thru at St George’s Retail Park in Newport, Isle of Wight, on Wednesday 30 September 2026. Customers filed in soon after the 11am ribbon-cutting.
It is the island’s third McDonald’s, about seven years after the retail park won planning permission, and comes with an outdoor play area and more than 100 roles, on a drive-thru format now standard across the fast food franchises recruiting in the UK.
The restaurant sits off St George’s Way, on the edge of Newport near the Asda roundabout. The ground was once St George’s Park, home of Newport IW FC until the 2018/19 season. In October 2019, Isle of Wight Council approved a scheme of six retail and leisure units with 289 parking spaces. McDonald’s applied for its signage in February 2020. In April 2025 the restaurant was still expected in the second quarter of 2026, and it finally opened at the end of September.
First customers through the doors
The restaurant opened after a ribbon-cutting at 11am on 30 September, the date McDonald’s had announced a fortnight earlier. Island Echo had been given a look inside before the doors opened. The paper reported that customers “wasted little time getting through the doors”.
Before opening, McDonald’s told the Isle of Wight County Press the site would create 115 full and part-time roles. On opening day the paper put the figure at 125. As first planned in 2020, the site includes an outdoor children’s play area with a climbing frame and slide. A McDonald’s spokesperson said:
Newport’s first drive-thru on a new retail park
Until now, Newport had only the eat-in McDonald’s on St James’ Street in the town centre. The island’s only drive-thru was on Brading Road in Ryde. The new restaurant gives drivers on the Newport side of the island a drive-thru without the trip to Ryde. It shares the retail park with Aldi, B&M, Costa Coffee, Wren Kitchens and Superdrug, the kind of site several coffee franchises recruiting in the UK now target alongside the high street.
Cars reach the restaurant through a new entrance off Godric Road. The out-of-town scheme was contested when it was approved: critics said it would draw trade away from independent shops in Newport town centre, and one councillor resigned from the planning committee in protest.
Good to know
McDonald’s has not said who operates the Newport drive-thru. Its UK franchising page says that “most new owners begin by investing to take over an established restaurant”, with owners then adding sites over time, and no UK register records which outlets are franchised, as what a franchise is explains.
Lake approved, Cowes refused
Newport may not be the last new McDonald’s on the island. A drive-thru on Newport Road in Lake, next to the KFC at Merrie Gardens, won planning approval in 2025. When the plans were drawn up, McDonald’s expected it to create about 120 jobs and serve The Bay area and Ventnor. A second scheme, on Three Gates Road in Cowes, was refused by councillors in July 2026.
If Lake opens, the Isle of Wight will have four McDonald’s, three of them drive-thrus. Brands recruiting operators on published terms can be compared across the UK franchise directory.
