Supply Chain Disruption Weighs Heavily on More Than Half of Food and Beverage Execs

As the food and beverage industry recovers from the pandemic, a new report by Mazars, an audit, tax and advisory firm in the U.S., found that 54% of food and beverage industry executives said their top concern was shipping and container costs and other unexpected fees when it comes to navigating the current supply chain disruption—all while trying to push forward sales and growth strategies.

The Mazars 2022 Food & Beverage Industry Outlook, which surveyed up to 60 mostly C-suite executives, was developed to seek the views of industry leaders and decision-makers.

Respondents were asked to rate their concerns using a five-point scale from “very concerned” (5) to “not at all concerned” (1).  The highest average rating was for the factor involving shipping costs, which came in at 4.3.

Regarding supply chain issues, executives were asked which of the following supply chain characteristics is your organization’s top priority for improvement? Twenty-two percent said cost of goods, whereas 18% said product delivery time.

The report also revealed that besides shipping, 39% of executives were very concerned about the rising commodity and other costs.

The report also addressed how companies plan to manage supply chain risk and costs in 2022 vs. 2021. The report found that 45% of those surveyed said they will be increasing suppliers to manage supply chain risk and costs. And when it comes to sourcing domestic or more local inputs or finding alternative products, 30% of executives said they would take these efforts to manage supply chain risk/cost.

Looking as sales and growth in 2022, 83% of food and beverage industry executives expect sales to increase for their organization, while 6% expect sales to stay about the same. The report also found that 25% expect a sales increase of more than 20%.

Mazars also found that 65% of executives expect that new customers will be an important factor influencing sales growth in 2022, while 52% said improved sales performance, 54% said new products and 52% said new sales channels and/or points of distribution.