THE Chinese arm of the U.S. fast-food chain McDonald’s commenced operations Wednesday at the 1.5 billion yuan (US$206 million) industrial park it jointly built with four major suppliers.

Located in Xiaogan, Central China’s Hubei Province, the industrial park has an annual capacity of producing 34,000 tons of meat products, 270 million bread buns, 30 million pastries, and two billion packaging products, according to Chinese media reports.

The industrial park, covering an area of more than 300,000 square meters, boasts a 25,000-square-meter automated warehouse for frozen, refrigerated, and dry goods, which can cut the logistics time from the factory to the warehouse by 90%.

Leveraging local geographical advantages, the park will become a strategic hub for McDonald’s China to further enhance the supply efficiency and stability of restaurants in China’s central and western regions. The launch of the industrial park marks a significant milestone in the construction of McDonald’s China’s smart supply chain.

With the new facility, the company can analyze real-time inventory levels and supplier capacities, automatically replenish stocks based on demand forecasts, achieve whole-process monitoring of cold chain logistics, and ensure food safety and quality.

“Our business is rapidly growing, as the McDonald’s China supply chain network needs to serve an increasing number of restaurants,” said Huang Hongfei, chief financial officer of McDonald’s China, as quoted by Yicai Global.

“The smart industrial park enables us to continuously enhance supply chain efficiency and resilience, bringing us closer to our customers and communities.”

Phyllis Cheung, CEO of McDonald’s China, stated that the company has been in China for over 30 years, emphasizing that the launch of the smart industrial park is an important step in deepening its engagement in the Chinese market.

“Over 70% of the tasks at the base are performed by automated equipment,” Cheung said, mentioning that technologies like the Internet of Things and big data have been applied to the whole process from procurement, manufacturing, and warehousing to logistics and cold chain distribution, enabling real-time traceability.

The four McDonald’s China suppliers that co-invested in the industrial park are the Mexican multinational food company Grupo Bimbo, the U.S. multinational corporation Tyson Foods, the Chinese logistics service provider XH Supply Chain Management, and the Chinese food-grade paper packaging firm Shanghai Zidan Food Packaging and Printing.

As of April, McDonald’s operates more than 6,000 restaurants in China, making it the company’s second-largest and fastest-growing market worldwide.(SD-Xinhua)