Challenging Times for the Food Sector

GUEST BLOG – NewCold

I am pleased to be able to share with you Jon Miles, Country Manager UK of NewCold Ltd, as a guest blog on the COVID 19 situation.

After the supply chain disruption and adjustment of previous weeks, things seem to have stabilised into the current normal at NewCold. With a customer base supplying Retailers, and the Food Service and Quick Serve outlets recent weeks have seen major upheaval in everything related to food storage and distribution. The announcement to reduce use, and then close “hospitality” outlets serving food saw a major impact on sales through non retail channels and the cancellation of multiple orders. On the converse side panic buying, and more people eating at home saw a spike in retail consumption which I read has seen 5 weeks with bigger sales than Christmas, but with no pre-planning or stock build…. Challenging to say the least.

Proud of our team

Throughout these times though there is one thing that has been consistent, and that is the dedication and effort of the people involved in logistics in the Cold Chain. Often taken for granted and not even thought about most of the time, by the general public, there are tens of thousands of people up and down the country working every day to keep the retail freezers stocked so that we can all pick up what we need, when we need it.

As usual I couldn’t be prouder of the NewCold team who have stepped up to the mark again and been almost faultless to ensure that our customers get their products delivered on time and in full, for the best chance of maximum availability on shelf.

Learning curve

There are some signs that the measures taken to force people to social distance, are having a positive impact and fingers crossed we can start to think of a move back to the old ‘normal’, although I have a feeling that some things may never be quite the same again. I really hope that from this point on we will always appreciate the key workers, and cough and sneeze into tissues/hankies, and wash our hands more often, and look out for our neighbours, and those that are vulnerable in our society.

A final big thanks to the NewCold team, and to all of the key workers trying to keep the country, fed, watered, fit and healthy in these unusual times.