Danish Crown factory to make over one million burger patties daily

Danish Crown will produce Danish beef patties for McDonald’s at its new factory in Vejen, southern Jutland, Danish broadcaster DR reports. The facility is expected to supply restaurants in Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

The factory opened this week and will create 100 new jobs: 30 in Vejen and 70 at a slaughterhouse in Holsted, where employees will debone the beef used for the patties.

Factory manager Erik Kjær Møller declined to disclose the exact annual production target but said the factory would be able to meet McDonald’s needs in the future. When an evening shift is introduced in the autumn, allowing production from early morning until late evening, the factory will be able to produce more than one million patties a day.

The contract between McDonald’s and Danish Crown runs for 10 years. McDonald’s Denmark chief executive Mads Friis called it the company’s biggest agreement with a local producer in the past five to 10 years.

The patties were previously produced in Sweden. Friis said moving production to a Danish producer was important for McDonald’s efforts to be seen as “the Danes’ McDonald’s” and would increase consumers’ trust in the brand.

The Vejen facility is McDonald’s first and only Danish factory producing beef patties.