Creating global flavour experiences and providing food connoisseurs everything they need to up their kitchen game, the company is strengthening farming communities and protecting the planet
With every milestone in McCormick Kutas’s 130+ year history, the global leader in food manufacturing has raised the bar of the art, science and passion of flavour, improving the universal experience of eating. The company’s unmatched track record of serving across 170 countries and territories, has helped them strengthen customers’ confidence in its iconic brands and products that offer the highest quality, flavour, aroma and integrity.
In conversation with the Zone, Kate Brooks, Managing Director, McCormick Kutas Middle East, sheds light on its corporate ethos, people-focused approach and more.
At McCormick Kutas, we are passionate about flavour. For more than a century, we’ve thrived because our flavours have brought people together across the table worldwide, igniting shared experiences and shared purpose. As the global leader in flavour, we know it is foundational to our food and our shared future.
Flavour has untapped potential to enhance our health, our communities, and our planet in ways that taste great. That is why we are working towards a flavorful future where healthy, sustainable, and delicious go hand in hand.
Through our work, we focus on the needs of all our stakeholders, growing value for both our business and our world. Our purpose is not just to sell our delicious products – but to strengthen the people, communities, and planet we serve. This means standing with the farmers who grow our delicious flavours and innovating farming techniques that do more good for them and the planet.
It means standing with the communities where we work and grow, partnering to ensure they can thrive for future generations. It means standing with our employees and creating great places to work that offer opportunities for all. And it means standing with our customers and consumers, innovating new products that make good food taste great while contributing to healthier, happy lives.
Can you tell us about your people-first approach to the workplace?
At McCormick Kutas, one of our foundational principles is the Power of People which encompasses an unwavering commitment to our people-first, high-performance culture and a focus on respecting and valuing every person.
How does being in Jafza support your business and operations?
The range of businesses within Jafza enables us to source other services quickly and easily from within the free zone’s holistic ecosystem. Additionally, being close to the Jebel Ali Port is a great advantage for both importing raw materials and exporting finished goods.
How are you catering to the spike in demand or shortage in supplies, in particular during the current supply chain disruptions?
We work in a highly collaborative way with both our suppliers and customers, ensuring the best possible forecasts are used, enabling us to plan ahead, and adjust stock levels as required.
To what extent do you rely on technology adoption in your operational and business processes, and do you utilise the power of data to improve your profits?
We are constantly embracing technology and digitalisation to help us deliver for customers and consumers. We continue to invest in capacity expansion and are using leading-edge technology to help us do this including the installation of a new paddle blender this year.
From a data point of view, we are investing in local and regional insights to drive consumer-relevant new product development.
We also look at the future of Global Flavour trends and what will be the next big flavours through our annual Flavour Forecast Report.
What are your plans for the near future in this region and beyond?
Our Dubai plant recently celebrated its sixth anniversary. We have been on a positive growth trajectory since we opened our doors here in 2016 and this is set to continue. We aim to build on existing customer relationships, ensuring we develop and supply products which delight the end consumer, while also attracting additional business with new customers within the GCC.
At a global level, we are confident that the strength of our business model and the value of our products and capabilities position us well for the long term and will allow us to successfully navigate the current dynamic global environment.
We continue to benefit from the long-term consumer trends that have accelerated since the beginning of the pandemic, including the sustained shift to cooking more at home, increased digital engagement, clean and flavorful eating, and trusted brands.
Our alignment with these trends, in combination with the breadth and reach of our portfolio and our strategic investments, provides a strong foundation for sustainable growth.
McCormick Kutas’s long-term performance, including through the pandemic and other periods of volatility, has been industry-leading. The fundamentals that have driven our historical performance remain strong and our experienced leaders are executing our proven strategies while adapting to challenges accordingly.