WSCS International offers a worldwide outsourcing partnership to many of the world’s top food franchise chains such as KFC, Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Burger King. To achieve the most affordable and effective manufacturing and distribution, lowest cost base, and with shorter lead times and lower inventory levels, these firms delegate to it some of the essential facets of their supply chains.
The business provides procurement services, including sourcing finished goods, controlling supplier manufacturing and quality, improving the design, optimizing stock, providing value-added services, and easing client delivery. The WSCS head office is in the United Kingdom from where it controls operations to meet its customers’ needs throughout the UK, US, and Europe. It has a liaison office in Delhi, India, which the company established in 2015 to manage similar activities in South East Asia.
WSCS International collaborates with food businesses to provide creative, environment-friendly, and economically viable packaging solutions. It has global suppliers that can provide its packaging materials and services to major food brands in various markets while adhering to the international guidelines for safety and hygiene in food packaging.
Vendor development in India for food-grade paper sacks
Amit Prakash, technical head of WSCS International, said, “WSCS International managing director, Eric Ban, and operations director, Jas Chopra, with a vision to explore and procure from the Indian market, opened a liaison office in India in 2015, and started procuring paper bags and other food packaging items. At that time, our monthly procurement was about 8 million paper bags and currently, this has risen to 30 million paper bags each month. In India, we have a team looking after procurement, vendor development, and quality. Currently, three to four suppliers are approved in India as per international norms by KFC and Yum Brands. The company has warehouses in Felixstowe in the UK, Savannah in Georgia, and Rotterdam in the Netherlands.”
In India, only a few suppliers provide food-grade paper stocks according to international norms. WSCS international developed these over the past 7 to 8 years, urging suppliers to produce the required quality. Prakash says, “Currently, Indian suppliers don’t know about the international norms and requirements for food packaging. In India, more than 50% of the suppliers still use paper stocks from non-food grade paper mills.”
“We are helping to train the suppliers about the international food packaging norms and making them aware of the requirements of factory pest control and sanitization. How to reduce wastage and improve capacity – and why testing is important for the finished products – this is why we train them,” he added.
US West coast greenfield expansion
As far as sustainability, the company is developing a wide range of biodegradable products from reliable and certified manufacturers such as paper straws, PLA straws, PLA cutlery, paper bags of 50 gsm substrates, and many other products. “We are producing 50 gsm paper bags with good tensile strength, and the best part of our paper bag is that if you put fried chicken in it, the oil stain will not appear on the bag for 20 minutes.”
WSCS International intends to invest US$ 10 million (approximately Rs 79 to Rs 80 crore) to expand its activities to the US West Coast.
In Portland, Oregon, the United States, a custom-designed for-purpose manufacturing plant with cutting-edge equipment is planned to manufacture food bags, handled carry bags, and other food packaging goods for their QSR clients. The goal of this facility is to always provide ‘On Time in Full.’ The technical team has already begun work on the project’s feasibility assessment, with WSCS aiming to commission and operate this production plant by 2023.
