|
|
|
You can get e-magazine links on WhatsApp. Click here
|
|
|
|
|
|
CPRL chief plans to reopen McDonald’s; MIPL raises food safety doubts
|
|
Saturday, 30 December, 2017, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
|
|
Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
|
With Vikram Bakshi, managing director, Connaught Plaza Restaurants Pvt Ltd (CPRL), making his intentions public to reopen McDonald’s outlets under it in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) after the logistics partner ceased operations, McDonald’s India Private Ltd (MIPL) has expressed doubts about food safety across the supply chain.
MIPL issued a statement, saying that using unapproved vendors for the supply chain was creating serious compliance risks to the fast food major’s standards for food quality and safety. As a former franchisee, CPRL is fully aware of how the chain’s control process works and how important it is.
Rebutting it, Bakshi termed MIPL’s intervention as ironic, claiming the latter never cared about the food safety, despite his letters regarding the same. He even alleged that McDonald’s used a set of standards for India that was different from the one it used for developed countries.
“This is allegedly a pre-planned step in collusion with McDonald’s and their wholly-owned subsidiary in India, McDonald’s India Pvt Ltd, and in direct contravention of the judgment of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which ordered the smooth functioning of the CPRL restaurants without any hindrance,” Bakshi said.
“What McDonald's could not achieve directly, they appear to be attempting through the vendors of CPRL. These desperate actions are being executed completely unmindful of the thousands of livelihoods that would be adversely affected, as also the business damage to CPRL during this high-sale period of the year,” he added.
Bakshi stated that CPRL’s entire team had been working tirelessly with the aim to reopen the remaining restaurants as soon as possible.
In an official statement from MIPL in response to the recent media stories about CPRL reopening the restaurants and using an unknown distribution centre, it stated that since the termination of the franchise agreements, MIPL has not been able to verify if the unauthorised McDonald’s restaurants operated by CPRL in north and east India were complying with applicable McDonald’s standards, including those pertaining to supplies, operations and safety standards and quality required for McDonald’s products. These restaurants need to be closed immediately.
“Food quality and safety are affected by all facets of the supply chain, from raw material sourcing and production to manufacturing to restaurant handling and preparation. Transportation and storage are critical links in the process. The unknown distribution centre is not approved to supply within the McDonald’s system,” a spokesperson for MIPL said.
Bakshi stated, “It is indeed ironic that the conscience of McDonald’s has suddenly awakened to quality and food safety in India, when for the past four years, since 2013, CPRL has been bringing to their attention, including to that of their chief executive officer, Steve Easterbrook, issues of the same, without extracting a single response or visit from them.”
Claiming that the fast food giant ignored food safety concerns, he added, “Issues that concern public health of this country have been blatantly ignored by the American company with no responses, visits or actions on food safety issues that were red-flagged for immediate attention.”
“Based on the above, it appears they have global standards for food safety and supplies and they have a different set of standards for third-world countries like ours - clear double standards,” Bakshi said.
He added that there were about a hundred restaurants that were affected by the disruption of supplies caused by the illegal and abrupt termination of services by the logistics vendor, Radhakrishna Foodland Pvt Ltd, who has been a vendor for over two decades.
Meanwhile, MIPL stated, “Our commitment to some of the highest food safety and quality standards has long been a part of the McDonald’s brand. Globally, we work closely with our trusted network of suppliers to uphold our stringent practices, and our efforts over the years have been successful in consistently reducing customer complaints.”
Some context will help better understand the handful of food-related allegations in the past years:
It is natural for agricultural products to have seasonal variations and foreign objects. McDonald’s has very stringent inspection and control protocols from the field to the restaurant, and consequent intensive washing processes to reduce foreign body risk to a very low level. However, for natural-growing products, the control can never be 100 per cent. There is unfortunately always a minimum risk.
Certain agricultural crops are sometimes more susceptible to pests, like worms, under certain climate conditions. If quality and safety standards cannot be fulfilled, the usage of produce, such as tomatoes, can also be stopped.
Some of the complaints mentioned in allegations and media articles have been perception issues or have been misrepresented (e.g. discoloration of a bun being mentioned as a fungus, coriander fibre being represented as a hair, a piece of herb being represented as a worm with a substitute photo, etc.)
McDonald’s continues to be committed to the highest standards of food safety and quality in India will continue to work to minimise and eliminate customer concerns. Without the system in place, we are unable to verify if the unauthorised McDonald’s restaurants are compliant to our stringent standards.”
Bakshi was confident of reopening the restaurants and has roped in a logistic partner. He said that the company/logistics partner, which was chosen very carefully by the CPRL team after due diligence, and had risen to this challenge, was ColdEX.
“This company is a specialist in the very same business as Radhakrishna Foodland. As specialists in logistics, they procure from suppliers and warehouses and distribute to their clients,” he added.
“We are extremely confident that they will be able to deliver to our standards and expectations. ColdEX is the national distribution partner to Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Wendys, Carls Jr,” Bakshi said, adding that it was funded by ACP, the front arm of ADB, ORIX and Rebeco.
“It has bagged the contract for supply services for nine of the 10 new quick service restaurant (QSR) businesses that entered the country in the last five years. It owns 850 reefer vehicles and eight distribution centres, making it of a far greater size than Radhakrishna Foodland Pvt Ltd,” informed Bakshi.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|