Did you know that Fonterra Collingwood Street in Eltham can produce up to 3 billion cheese slices each year? That’s enough cheese slices to wrap around the earth three times!
These cheese slices are put into cheeseburgers all around the globe, including the world-famous McDonald’s Big Mac®.
Tyrone Growden, Fonterra’s Global Account Manager for McDonald’s, says McDonald’s is one of our key customers in the Quick-service Restaurant business.
“Fonterra Eltham has been producing cheese for McDonald's for decades. Now, cheese from Eltham is used at McDonald’s stores across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa,” he says.
Last year, Fonterra supplied 7 million kilograms of cheese and other dairy products to McDonald’s. New Zealand’s 167 McDonald's restaurants alone serve about 1.5 million kilograms of cheese each year.
“Seeing the demand coming through is really exciting for us. It means that more and more consumers all over the world can have a taste of New Zealand dairy goodness,” Tyrone says.
“Cheese from Eltham is used at McDonald’s stores across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa,” says Tyrone Growden, Fonterra’s Global Account Manager for McDonald’s.
Quality and collaboration as the key ingredients
Before getting on the Big Mac®, every batch of cheese needs to pass about 100 rigorous quality tests.
Kelvin Gray, Operations Manager at Fonterra Collingwood says it’s important that each slice of cheese meet McDonald’s standard and has the same great taste worldwide.
“Consistency is key. Whether a Big Mac® is served in New Zealand, China or Dubai, the cheese must have the same flavour to meet that Golden Arches standard,” Kelvin says.
Last year, Fonterra Eltham was awarded the McDonald’s ANZ Supplier Quality Management System Excellence Gold Award for scoring A-grade for more than five consecutive years.
Kelvin says the award is a recognition for the team’s hard work and expertise.
“As one of McDonald’s targeted suppliers, we try to ‘move the plant closer to our customer’. We host regular workshop and customer visits for the McDonald’s team to come give us feedback and work on improving the process and the products.
“It’s important that we focus on the end consumers and work with not only McDonald’s but other suppliers in their network to share knowledge and create value for the end consumers,” Kelvin adds.