Specialty Food News asked two food makers and a retailer about the supply chain-related challenges that presented themselves during the pandemic, if they still exist, and how they’re managing them.
Q: Are you still experiencing pandemic-related supply chain issues and if so, how are you handling them?
Becky Renfro Borbolla, vice president of Mrs. Renfro’s
The last eight months have been a challenge for everyone in the industry. Mrs. Renfro’s products as well as many of our co-pack customer products have seen sales increase by 35 to 40 percent or more. We have used eight months of supplies in four months. Packaging manufacturers have not been able to keep up with the increased volume. Everyday has become a juggling act for us and our biggest question is “What will we be able to produce today?” We have had to identify alternate sources of certain supplies and ingredients to minimize the outages. We are ready to be back to normal whatever that looks like.
Scott Case, senior merchandising and procurement manager, Di Bruno Bros.
We have been forced to deemphasize highly perishable imported products like brie, semi firm cheeses and cured meats, while pivoting to similar products produced domestically. While those imported items will always have representation in our shops and online, I think the trend to procure highly perishable specialty foods domestically will continue to grow. Since we are not the only retailers to take this approach, we have also had to add in longer lead times in our strategic planning – i.e., where an order for own-brand pepperoni in the past might have been fulfilled in three to four weeks, this year we have been planning for six to eight weeks – and even then, inventory ends up being tight. The pandemic also caused us to do a better job of getting secondary and tertiary copackers set up. When one copacker is down because of an outbreak, we can pivot production to another facility in a different region of the country.
Hopefully, we will not have to change primary suppliers again, but this time we will have more options in place. Finally, we have known where to push and pull on the supply chain and developed the tools to do both. We have added a great logistics partner – they have come through tremendously on a few same-day pickups that were mission-critical to our operation, rescuing shipments that otherwise would have sat in purgatory waiting for the glut of freight to lighten during the holidays. And we have had to be realistic in some cases – the folks who handle making our products and delivering them to us have done a heroic task up to this point, but this is a global pandemic, and health and safety come first. I am more understanding if there is a delay somewhere in the chain – glass jars delayed, raw materials short, boat waiting to be offloaded – at the end of the day, we have learned how to communicate both internally and externally about these delays.
Karen Colberg, co-CEO of King Arthur Baking Co.
Early on in the pandemic, we confronted unforeseen levels of demand, and were able to expand capacity with existing and new partners for conventional flours. Baking levels are still quite high and we are so pleased we have the flour we need to support our customers. We are still experiencing some out-of-stock issues in other categories and are working closely with our co-manufacturers to focus on the priority products to meet as much demand as possible.
Related: Cheese Focus: Pivots With Staying Power; Restaurants Struggle With Ongoing COVID Challenges.
from Industry Operations https://ift.tt/3nWon1t
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