Supreme Award for Fonterra at 2017 ExportNZ Awards

Winning the Supreme Award at the 2017 ExportNZ Awards for Auckland and Waikato is recognition the Co-operative’s product innovation is meeting changing customer expectations, says Fonterra Chairman John Wilson.

At an event in Auckland last night, ExportNZ Auckland and Waikato (divisions of the Employers and Manufacturers Association) gave their top award to Fonterra Foodservice after the Co-op earlier won the Westpac Exporter of the Year (total sales over $25 million) category. There were 25 finalists across seven categories of the awards, sponsored by Air New Zealand Cargo.

Fonterra entered the award for the performance of its Foodservice business – which has grown aggressively, especially in Asia, in recent years to cater for ‘out-of-home’ outlets such as bakeries, cafes, restaurants, hotels and fast food chains.

“Everyone at Fonterra shares in this award – from our farmers who produce the highest quality milk through to our people who develop new products and deliver them to our customers around the world,” Mr Wilson said today.

“Through innovation and new product development, Fonterra is meeting the challenge of adapting to rapid changes in our key export markets.

“A fundamental part of our Co-op’s strategy is to grow value by converting more of our milk into higher value consumer and foodservice products and to achieve this we have grown our foodservice business in line with our goal of $5 billion sales by 2023.

“Our Foodservice business has worked closely with our research and development teams to create new products and technologies that go straight to market and meet the increasingly demanding needs of bakers, chefs and restaurant owners.”

In Asia particularly, Fonterra has seen rapid growth in its foodservice business as an increasingly urbanised middle class turn to a more westernised diet. Forty per cent of people in urban China now eat in a western fast food outlet once a week, and seek food that is high quality, naturally sourced and trusted.

China is an extremely competitive dairy foodservice market, where the world leaders are battling for commercial success, says Grant Watson, Fonterra’s Global Foodservice Director.

“We are proud as a New Zealand exporter to be winning this fight. China is our fastest growing foodservice market, and we hold a 40 per cent share of the imported dairy foodservice business there. We are China’s leading dairy foodservice provider and have grown at around 30 per cent year-on-year to have our people located in more than 76 cities across China.”

In 2016 Fonterra rebranded its foodservice business as Anchor Food Professionals. This was done to leverage Fonterra’s experience to create higher value, chef-led offerings for more foodservice customers and differentiate the Co-operative as much more than an ingredient supplier.

Anchor Food Professionals is active in over 50 countries, working with our customers in bakeries, Italian kitchens, quick service restaurants, cafes and tea houses to succeed in one of the most dynamic and competitive food markets in the world.

ENDS

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