Business continuity for the food and drink industry

Industry-specific threats to the food and drink sector include:

• Scarcity of ingredients due to a poor crop, war or transport disruption that leads to rising prices.
• Broken supply chain. This is especially a problem for larger organisations which are highly susceptible to disruptions arising from the failure of a key supplier whether they are supplying a service such as transport, IT support, waste disposal or packaging or providing raw ingredients or finished products.
• Impact of political change. Structural changes, such as the UK breaking away from the European Union ('Brexit'), can result in the need to find alternative suppliers, distribution delays and increased costs due to the imposition of tariffs.
• Product contamination and recall. Food scares are what retailers and their suppliers fear most, knowing even the threat of an attack could destroy confidence in the brand, while a successful attack could disrupt business, undermine brand image and, worse, lead to illness and death.
• Denial of access to a factory, packaging plant or distribution centre for any number of reasons including protests, terrorist attacks, fire and floods. This risk is increasing with the growing trend towards consolidation of facilities.
• Reduced capacity to make up any production shortfalls due to strategies such as lean manufacturing and just-in-time logistics, which allow no margin for error. Some food and drink manufacturers struggle to reconcile their own plans for network consolidation with customers' requirements to demonstrate an ability to switch production to alternative sites as a business continuity management requirement.
• Shortage of people, particularly skilled logistics professionals. Certain food and drink sectors rely heavily on migrant workers in both manufacturing and distribution.

All these potential threats affecting the industry should be addressed in an effective food and drink business continuity plan tailored to the business' actual needs.

Business continuity expertise in the food and drink sector

Resilience Guard's consultants can create a bespoke business continuity plan to mitigate the risk of these threats. We also help food and drink manufacturers boost their resilience through services such as:

• Crisis management preparedness with a particular focus on mass consumption goods
• Production line resilience
• Maintaining availability of distribution channels
• Crisis communications

Contact us to discuss how we could help your organisation.