McCORMICK Foods Australia

Background of McCormick Foods and their relationship with ABEX Today, McCORMICK is one of the most readily identifiable food brands in Australia with its familiar green, gold and white packaging, which was originally introduced in 1988. In addition to its well-recognised broad range of Herbs, Spices and Seasonings, McCORMICK has also expanded to provide a wide range of convenient and innovative products designed to help people prepare great tasting meals quickly and easily.  Over 95% of the products sold by McCORMICK Foods in Australia are now manufactured locally. ABEX begun delivering the nationally recognised qualification Certificate III Warehousing & Storage to 19 of McCormick's warehouse staff in October 2007. Training occurred at McCormick's premises in Clayton South for one hour per month, for a period of 12 months. This training was followed by training in Customer Service (Certificate III Wholesale), management level qualifications (Certificate IV Warehousing).

Interview with Eachan Fraser, Warehouse & Customer Service Supervisor from McCormick Foods Australia (April 2009).

What made you decide to look at providing training for your employees?

"to broaden their skills and make the employees better assets to McCormick's by increasing their cross functionality, and also for their professional development and to increase their self-worth".

What improvements in your business did you want to see?

"a broader skills range, higher moral and a greater knowledge of the business".

" better products and an environmental focus on production using tools such as LEAN  manufacturing concepts".

What new staff abilities / qualities did you want to see?

"Indirectly from the course - the self worth, showing that you (as a company) care and instilling a care factor in staff, pride in their work and themselves, broadens the business knowledge and business sense".

Why did you choose ABEX to provide training?

"Initally our Human Resources department chose ABEX to deliver Warehousing certificate. We chose to continue to use ABEX to deliver training after this, as felt they offered a great service. Another key factor was the feedback. Students gave excellent feedback and feedback that the students had on company policies was relayed back to management".

How was your experience of ABEX's training?

"The training was engaging, structured. There were good time frames. The trainers were both totally focussed and committed".

What sort of improvements did you see during and after training?

"Increased knowledge, better attitude, business respect, we've been able to restructure processes to improve efficiencies, better feedback from staff when changes occur in the workplace - has opened up communication lines".

What were your overall impressions?

"Professional, well-structured, enthusiastic. Well trainer trainers. Knowledable and flexible".

Would you recommend ABEX to other businesses?

"Yes of course".