Canadian Beef Proudly Served Here
"We can't give enough credit or thanks to those operators and their guests who made Canadian beef their focus over the past few months," says Marty Carpenter, BIC's Foodservice Team Leader. "These folks made all the difference in whether or not the industry survived this crisis."
And in fact, Canada is the only country in the world that has actually seen consumer confidence and consumption INCREASE after a case of BSE was discovered.
From the biggest quick service chain, to the local rural diner there were amazing stories of support for the beef industry - BIC salutes each and every one of these operators and their guests for helping to keep the beef industry going.
"With the beef industry in trouble, our guests wanted to help and they demanded Canadian beef. Period." says Peter de Groot, Vice President of Operations for Montana's Restaurants "We developed a promotion focused on Canadian beef short ribs. The promotion far exceeded our expectations, our customers love them and we were delighted with their response to our promotion."
Pizza Hut took a different approach, from Aug 11 to September 22, 2003, the Pizza Hut restaurants owned by parent company priszm in Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario donated 50 cents from every Pizza Hut 'Meat Lovers' or 'Canadian' pizza sale to the Canadian Cattlemen's. Over $40,000 was raised to help the cattle industry recover from the BSE crisis.
One of the biggest boosts that the Canadian beef producers got was when the quick service operators came on board with their commitment to Canadian beef. Dairy Queen was first to commit to serving 100% Canadian beef, quickly followed by Burger King, A&W;, and McDonald's Restaurants. Not only did this represent a huge quantity of Canadian beef sold, it was an overwhelmingly positive endorsement from some of the most influential beef purchasers in the country.
Jim Oliver owns a Burger King restaurant in Medicine Hat and sits on the Burger King purchasing advisory committee.
"This beef crisis united people across Canada" says Oliver. "Here was a way that the average Canadian could make a difference - they could eat a hamburger made with 100% Canadian beef. And that is what Burger King wanted to give them. Customers and operators alike felt passionately about this issue. Here in Alberta, we all know people who work in the beef industry and they were hurting, so here was a way we could help. It was the right thing to do."
In addition to only purchasing Canadian beef for their burgers, Burger King ran a Whopper Day promotion - buy one whopper made with Canadian beef and get a second one for free - Burger King estimated they sold half a million whoppers in one day.
"Beef producers across Canada are very grateful to the industry for supporting them and believing in them during this difficult time" says Carpenter. "Their efforts are what made the difference."
Operators want to promote the fact that they are selling Canadian beef and have been asking for promotional materials to advertise this to their customers. The Beef Information Centre has created a kit to meet that need.
The "Proud to Serve Canadian" kit contains door stickers, menu stickers and counter sized posters to advertise customers that Canadian beef is served here. In addition, the kit contains fun buttons and pens for wait staff.
