Wendy’s Awards Innovative Supply Chain Leaders

A few weeks ago, we celebrated the outstanding accomplishments of our Wendy’s® family at our 50th Anniversary Convention + Expo in Orlando, Florida. To ensure our supplier partners received the recognition they deserve at the event, Quality Supply Chain Co-op, Inc. (QSSC), an independent, not-for-profit purchasing and supply chain co-op serving both Wendy’s franchisees and company operators, partnered with us to create the first-ever Squarely Sustainable Supplier of the Year Award. This recognition commends suppliers who are living the values outlined in our Squarely Sustainable™ approach: to use less, use better, spark action and engage partners, by making it a reality and upholding

Wendy’s commitment to serve our customers the freshest, highest-quality ingredients possible.

The qualifications for the Squarely Sustainable award were straightforward and stringent: eligible suppliers had to exemplify a commitment to sustainability, the environment and responsible sourcing that go above and beyond.

We asked our suppliers to share their sustainability efforts and how they uphold Wendy’s Squarely Sustainable approach to doing business. In our first year, we received a remarkable 143 submissions.

After hours of pouring over each submission, we selected the top 10 finalists:

• Bimbo QSR

• Cargill

• Cascades Tissue Group

• Cavendish Farms

• Fresh Mark (Sugardale)

• Olymel

• Schreiber Foods

• Taylor Farms

• Perdue Farms

• Tyson Foods

While we were impressed by the sustainability practices from every applicant, it’s our pleasure to name Cargill as our 2019 Squarely Sustainable Supplier of the Year.

Cargill supplies several key products to the Wendy’s business, including beef, cooking oil, and cocoa powder for our famous chocolate Frosty®. Driven by a purpose to nourish the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way, Cargill demonstrates a commitment to sustainable supply chains from farm to fork.

Instead of typical Jug in the Box (JIB) packaging for oil, Cargill provides Wendy’s with Bag in the Box (BIB) packaging, which as allowed Wendy’s restaurants to reduce packaging by approximately 390 tons of plastic a year (the equivalent of 36 million water bottles). They are also increasing the ability to reclaim wasted oil by up to 696,000 pounds of oil annually.

Last year, more than 200,000 farmers received training from Cargill to ensure adoption of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), while working with farming communities to define the resources they need to succeed.  Cargill also recently announced a new initiative to further accelerate sustainability progress across the North American beef supply chain, working with farmers, ranchers and innovators to achieve a 30% greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity reduction by 2030, equivalent to removing 2 million cars off U.S. highways for a year).

Now, we’d be remiss not to share the achievements of our other finalists, like Cascades Tissue Group, whose products are made using 24 percent less energy and 75 percent less water than the American paper industry average. Taylor Farms installed a ground-breaking microgrid energy system to offset annual energy usage by more than 90 percent, an industry first.

A few of these same suppliers were also awarded Golden Link Awards, which recognize the Wendy’s system’s top supply chain partners:

• Advantech

• Bimbo QSR

• Command Packaging

• Dairy-Mix, Inc

• Flanagan Foodservice

• Graphic Packaging

• Quikserv

• Sygma/Sysco

• The Star Group

• Tyson Fresh Meats

With such forward-thinking suppliers, we’re on track to create a Squarely Sustainable future for the Wendy’s business. A future where we use less and reduce unnecessary materials to minimize waste, use better and become an industry-leader in recyclability and certified sustainable materials, engage our partners to save energy and use energy-efficient equipment and LED lighting to make our Smart Designs a reality.

This award sets a precedent for current and future suppliers and we look forward to sharing their accomplishments in the future.