“As a global company, we are constantly collaborating across the organization, with both our internal stakeholders and vendors, exploring supply markets to bring new and innovative offerings and experiences to our guests across our eight brands and specifically when it comes to food and beverage,” Jon McKeown, chief procurement officer for Carnival Corporation, told Cruise Industry News.
“We have a single North American supply chain team and two teams in Europe serving mainland Europe for AIDA and Costa, and a UK team for Cunard and P&O.”
Those teams collaborate where it makes sense, according to McKeown, recognizing that there are nuances between the supply chain requirements of the different brands.
“We have to keep that uniqueness for each of our brands and that which makes those brands differentiated and special to the guests that travel on them,” he explained.
In total, Carnival Corporation has in excess of 20,000 vendors across all product categories, according to McKeown, and for food and beverage, several thousand for some 30,000 different items.
While the teams can leverage scale, that does not mean they buy the same thing for all, he explained.
“Leveraging scale is about using our influence, working with our partners, working with vendors we have good long-term relationships with in ways that we can benefit from and our vendors can benefit as well,”
As for how costs affect sourcing, McKeown said: “I use the value connotation as opposed to cost. What we are looking for is the product, the service, the vendors that can provide that excellent guest experience and innovation. We are focused on getting the best value through our vendor relationships, throughout the whole supply chain.
“When we sit down with our internal partners and stakeholders who are at the front of the guest facing operations, we talk about what brings value to the guest experience.
“We have professional global sourcing and supply teams that support our operation 24/7, 365 days a year,” he continued. “And overcoming challenges is just what they do.”
As a global company he said that Carnival routinely adjusts and adapts to evolving market conditions, whether it is related to pricing, supply chain dynamics or regulatory shifts.
“This is sort of standard operating practice for us, it is business as usual. Our global scale, our diversified sourcing allows us to remain very, very agile.”
McKeown’s recipe for success? “We have great sourcing and procurement people with in-depth market knowledge and market intelligence, whether that be about dairy products, proteins or beverages, and they have strong, deep and trusting relationships with both stakeholders and vendors, and they understand and are passionate about delivering that brand guest experience day in and day out,” he answered.
“The role of the sourcing teams for food and beverage is to identify innovative ideas and bring them to our stakeholders internally, work with our partners, and just keep refreshing and adapting with changing tastes and preferences.
“They connect the dots across the business to make sure great ideas and innovations are spread from brand to brand and that they have the option to explore them.”
Excerpt from the Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine Summer 2025
