As the scale and scope of food production grows larger every day, with the actions of just one company reaching millions, food safety is paramount now more than ever. VLM Foods understands this concept more than most – this international trading company has been working hard for the past decade to lead the industry in food safety, food defense and supply chain security best practices.

A Tight Knit Crowd

For one with such a global reach, VLM Foods is what some might consider a small company, with 25 employees at VLM’s main headquarters in Montreal, seven in China, and three in Australia, where the company is currently working on forging new marketing opportunities. As VLM Foods Director of Trade Compliance Mark FeDuke points out, small is relative – and smaller companies often have the space to grow and innovate at a much faster rate than their larger counterparts.

“It’s kind of funny,” says FeDuke. “We have a global footprint in moving our products all over the world. So we have the complexities that much larger corporations have, offset by the agility we have as a relatively small company.” This point is underlined by VLM’s meat and poultry division, which marries the company’s depth of product and production expertise with its breadth of cultural and international market knowledge, to work hand-in-hand with suppliers and customers in providing customized global supply chain solutions creating value for all.

Of course, a company can only run smoothly when its employees are all 100 per cent on board, and that goes triple for smaller companies. Not that it’s a problem for VLM Foods. The company boasts an extremely low turnover rate – many have been with VLM since its inception in 2001 – which speaks to a company culture of mutual respect and dedication.

“For any company to succeed in any field whatsoever, what it needs are good, loyal, dedicated, informed and knowledgeable employees,” says VLM Foods President Marcel Lessard. “We have this here at VLM.”

Improvement: Not Just the Flavor of the Month

Many companies talk about their achievements in Six Sigma and Lean strategies, but you won’t find such boasts coming from the executives of VLM Foods. That’s not on account of their lack of interest in efficiency – in fact, it’s quite the opposite.

“Lean, Agile, and TQM programs, for many people, can be flavor of the month – we don’t see operational issues as a flavor of the month,” notes FeDuke. “We’re a stakeholder-focused organization, meaning that we’re geared toward delivering value for our customers by simply doing the right thing.”

VLM focuses on training that encourages agility and cross-functionality supporting a culture of responsibility. “The beauty of a company like ours is that we have well rounded teammates equally equipped to serve suppliers as customers,” says FeDuke.

Quality in Every Link of the Supply Chain

In business, as with everything, you’re only as strong as your weakest link. When you’re a food supply company, dealing with everything down the line from manufacturers to buyers on a daily basis, there are a lot of links that must be maintained. Some companies might cut corners, sacrificing quality in the name of the bottom line, but for VLM Foods that’s not an option. “We are not engaged in the business to buy low and sell high, with one-time deals,” says FeDuke. “Some folks think purely in transactional terms, while we thrive off of relationships.” A critical factor has been enabling VLM’s certified food safety inspectors to execute upstream food safety capacity building initiatives aimed at sharing food safety best practices with partners throughout the supply chain.

VLM ‘s investments in cultivating long term relationships requires a substantial amount of transparency throughout the supply chain to ensure that concerns about food safety, systemic risks, and traceability can be easily addressed. Likewise, VLM benefits from supply chain visibility in tackling turbulent markets to ensure customer needs are satisfied. 

Starting with supplying quality control inspection, logistics and regulatory affairs resources and working with supply chain partners who share the same philosophy, VLM extends dependability as a core company value throughout the system collaborating closely with product vendors, service providers, customers and regulators ensuring that everything is by the book and respect is upheld in the process.

It’s a lot of work, but VLM feels that it is worth it for consumers down the line. “Our customers know we’re protecting their interests in foreseeing logistics hiccups while mitigating additional risks through our food safety, food defense and supply chain security steps,” says FeDuke. 

The Future of Food Safety

When VLM Foods talks about the future, new markets (Australia, in particular) and new organic product lines enter the conversation, but above it all that conversation consists of continuing to push on food safety, not just from VLM but across the board.

“The regulatory changes that are happening in the United States are not only happening in the United States,” FeDuke says of changing FDA and USDA regulations. “They’re happening elsewhere against a backdrop of incredibly interconnected supply chains. We all benefit from a healthy global food trading system allowing North American meat producers to export their products to Asia while developing countries look to see their produce accessing North America and we’re doing our part as a responsible stakeholder in the system.”

After all, everyone is a consumer at the end of the day. “Not only are we in business to supply our customers, but we live in these markets: my family lives in North America” notesFeDuke. “I want to know that we’re doing our part to help raise the bar on food safety. I think that’s kind of the way we like to think of how we operate on a day to day basis.”