Fonterra chief operating officer, consumer and foodservice, Lukas Paravacini, said in the US, more than 50% of all spend on food and beverage is now out of home and in China the market has grown by 30% over the last five years.
As a result, the global industry is predicted to be worth US$3tn in 2021.
“We have taken advantage of this eating out trend and currently Anchor Food Professionals is growing around 10 times faster than the global total foodservice market,” Paravacini said.
“The gross margin from foodservice is two or three times what we can earn from basic ingredient products,” he said.
Large investment
Global director foodservice, Grant Watson, said a new business model based on customer insights, has been central to the success.
“We have 56 chefs in more than 50 countries who go into kitchens to demonstrate the products,” Watson said.
“We know the smallest things can make a difference, so we make our products last longer, stretch further, work faster, waste less, withstand more.”
Paravacini said over the past four years, Fonterra has invested NZ$850m (US$605m) in new production capacity for foodservice - NZ$700m (US$499m) of which has been in New Zealand.
These expansions are at Waitoa in the Waikato for UHT creams, Eltham in Taranaki for slice-on-slice cheese, Clandeboye in Canterbury for extra stretch mozzarella and Te Rapa in the Waikato and Darfield in Canterbury for cream cheese.
“These investments are helping us to match increasing demand for our products and ensuring that we remain on track to meet our annual revenue target of NZ$5bn (US$3.6bn) by 2023,” Paravacini said.