Public Administration Minister Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan and San Fernando Mayor Dr Navi Muradali are making a call for local content in the menus of the McDonald's chain of restaurants in T&T.At the official opening of its fourth outlet at Dumfries Road, Gulf View, La Romaine, yesterday, Muradali said just as local content is reflected in the 100 people employed at the new outlet, he hopes their supplies will soon display local content.
"Opening in the City of San Fernando is good for investment. It is good for opportunities, and you mentioned that 100 people from the La Romaine area have been employed and it is very good to know that you have been using local content," Muradali told Mc Donald's marketing manager, Trinidad, Jameela Mohammed-Ali. "I hope that your products, as well, are of local content in terms of some of the supplies. I hope that in due course, your supply chain will also be from local content. We need to support the local manufacturers and the local industry."
Muradali presented an approved food premises certificate to Mohammed-Ali. Public health officials from the San Fernando City Corporation, including Dr Ingrid Poon King and John Ramkhelawan, toured the premises with the mayor and minister following the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Seepersad-Bachan said she was willing to begin dialogue with Acros Dorados, operators of McDonald's restaurants in Latin America and the Caribbean, about integrating their foreign products with some local inputs "so we can have an indigenous McDonald rather than one which bring all of its napkins and forks and other inputs from abroad."Seepersad-Bachan, who is the MP for San Fernando West, suggested that McDonald's partner with local bakeries for items they have on their menu, including cassava bread.
"I would like to see, for example, McDonald informing local bakeries of the standards they require, so our people can bake bread and other products they have on their menu. I feel we can combine globalisation by integrating the foreign companies with local inputs so we can have an indigenous McDonald in Trinidad."
Mohammed-Ali said in the last two years, Arcos Dorados has employed hundreds of people from T&T, providing jobs with good benefits, an attractive pay package and opportunities for training and advancement. In La Romaine alone, she said, they have provided 100 fresh employment opportunities.McDonald's, which is celebrating its second anniversary since re-establishing business in Trinidad in September 2011, is scheduled to open a fifth restaurant at Gulf City Mall.