COVID-19 and CPG: Supplying the Demand
COVID-19 and CPG: how you can supply demand efficiently by pivoting strategically and connecting with technology.
During this COVID-19 epidemic, each branch of the food industry has felt the pressure of inexplicable amounts of change and every business has been ejected out of their comfort zone. Whether you’re a single-location restaurant experiencing a pivot to delivery or a manufacturer trying to meet the overwhelming demands of consumers stuck in quarantine, everyone is adjusting to their new normal. “Business as usual” is non-existent as we learn how to cope through this tumultuous time. But what if there were a way to forecast what the upcoming weeks have in store?
As countries that were hit by COVID-19 months before the United States now begin to recover, the story of what to come has begun to unfold, resulting in a few best-practices to observe while hold-out for our own recovery season.
Shift Focus
Amid the chaos, brick and mortar food retail stores have been overwhelmed with a demand that the grocer and the manufacturer were equally unprepared for. As a result, shelves were initially bare and CPG companies scrambled to produce more goods at a faster rate.
In China, the retail food companies that recovered quickly shifted their focus to online sales, allowing them to open more channels instead of being limited to retail shelves. Master Kong, for example, anticipated the overwhelming consumer demand for their quick-heat noodle product. By shifting online and carefully tracking grocer’s reopening plans, they were able to supply retail stores flexibly and without continued overwhelm.
By constantly reframing their approach many companies saw growth and were able to supply work to those who were out of a job in other parts of the food industry, particularly restaurant workers.
Shifting Man-Power
While the need for restaurant workers decreased, it increased on the retail-end. During the COVID-19 pandemic, food establishments from restaurants through hotels shared their workforce with supermarket retail chains, both on and offline. This gave those who were temporarily out-of-work to have a new source of income while meeting the needs of the retail sector of the food industry. The more that industry professionals banned together to support one-another, the quicker part of the industry was able to recover.
From restaurant to supermarket, the consensus remains that those who support one another and continuously reframe their efforts see the signs of recovery before anyone else. CEO-driven efforts to seek out new ways of doing business have kept these companies afloat as they begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, providing us all with valuable lessons to learn during this time.
Increasing Efficiency
Throughout this time in the CPG industry, the need for efficiency is ever-apparent. The more seamless that operations are, the easier it is to supply the demand of quarantined consumers who are dependent on the manufacturers they trust to meet their daily food needs.
In a time where companies can’t hire enough hands, turning to technology becomes the logical choice. LabelCalc, for example, has the ability to connect the distributor with the manufacturer for seamless nutritional data share. Beyond the ability to effortlessly create nutrition panels for retail products, Labelcalc’s API makes it simple for distributors to provide private-label data to manufacturers.
Instead of the manufacturer needing to weed through photos of nutrition panels and individually enter information, LabelCalc’s API can provide the distributor the opportunity to easily share their nutritional data as manufacturers’ demand increases in order to supply retail demand. Round and round the cycle goes. The more efficiently the distributor can supply the manufacturer, the effect trickles down to the consumer.
Whether you’re interested in making the supply and demand process easier for your manufacturers or you are a manufacturer in need of a massive database to supply nutrition information to your consumer for your retail products, LabelCalc is the missing piece of the puzzle you never knew you needed. Contact us today.
