Part 2: Navigating High Inflation and Interest Rates in the Food & Beverage Industry

Inflation and interest rates are casting a significant shadow over the food and beverage industry, profoundly impacting various aspects of operations. Prices for ingredients, packaging, energy, transportation, and labor have surged, translating into higher consumer prices. As a result, consumers are shifting towards lower-priced alternatives, posing challenges for manufacturers. Those equipped with robust insights and cost agility are weathering the storm better, while others grapple with shrinking margins.

Amidst this economic turbulence, regulators have responded by significantly increasing interest rates to curb inflation. However, this move has further strained smaller businesses and startups, grappling with the high cost of capital. Consequently, the industry landscape is witnessing a scenario where larger enterprises dominate, consuming smaller players struggling to stay afloat.

Part 1: The Adoption of Technology in Food & Beverage

In today's rapidly evolving food and beverage industry, adopting technology is not just a choice but a necessity for businesses aiming to stay competitive and efficient. From AI and machine learning to enterprise automation and IoT, technological advancements are reshaping how companies operate, engage with customers, and manage their supply chains.

The Role of Technology in Business Transformation

Leading food & beverage sector businesses embrace a digital-first approach to drive growth and streamline operations. This includes leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), generative AI, enterprise automation, IoT (Internet of Things), and Industry 4.0 solutions to enhance productivity, optimize processes, and deliver superior customer experiences.

Partner Spotlight: Info's OS Technology Platform

Our partner, Infor, with its innovative OS technology platform, is at the forefront of this technological revolution. Info has been instrumental in helping food & beverage businesses harness the power of cutting-edge technologies to unlock new opportunities and overcome operational challenges.

How Info is Empowering Businesses

Infor's OS technology platform offers tailored solutions designed to meet the specific needs of food and beverage companies. By leveraging AI and machine learning, Info enables businesses to analyze vast amounts of data in real time, gaining actionable insights to optimize production, predict demand, and enhance supply chain efficiency.

By Christine Dominski, ICCG Senior Business Consultant

Do you find yourself searching for Information through multiple Excel files? How about Teams or SharePoint sites? Do you struggle with managing approvals or reviews?

Maybe it is time for a Product Life Cycle Management System (PLM).

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is the process by which Research and Development innovate new products and manage quality throughout the product lifecycle to ensure the highest level of consumer satisfaction and shareholder value.

PLM systems wrap around Business Strategies and Product Portfolios to help coordinate information and collaboration across an organization. The process of generating product ideas, all the way to product retirement, can be managed in a PLM system. Manage Suppliers, Items (ingredients), Formulas (recipes), Label and Project information, all in one place. Record approvals at every step of the way to provide audit trails.

Product Lifecycle Management affords the peace of mind that all data is managed and reported as required by your organization. A PLM system allows you to control User access to the information as needed for your business success. Integration with ERP systems and a data lake are available. Use the data lake to feed E-Commerce initiates or other internal systems used for reporting.

By Christine Dominski, ICCG Senior Business Consultant

Have you ever wondered if a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system is right for your business? Is the Business Value unclear? No matter the size of your business, a Product Lifecycle Management system can provide insights and discipline to a Company's process. Let’s provide clarity on the business value.

Standardize Business Processes – By understanding what makes your business tick, you can standardize the processes in a system to maximize efficiency. Once you maximize efficiency, you can realize a quicker time to market with new approval processes tailored to your needs.

Just as companies must transform to meet today’s challenges, the software vendors they rely on must also mutate their products to become a better fit for the next generation of organizations. And that’s happening with ERP. From my perspective, here are the seven ways ERP is evolving, along with my tips for selecting an ERP vendor.

The role of the CFO has changed dramatically over recent times and will continue to do so. The modern CFO is now emerging as a key enabler in creating a more ‘dynamic’ finance function that can react to ever changing demands from both internal stakeholders and external customer, suppliers and partners. In addition to the traditional responsibility of ‘managing the finances’ of the organisation, the CFO is now increasingly engaged with activities such as strategy formulation and business transformation projects. 

Business transformation projects are increasingly being undertaken to facilitate growth, reduce costs and increase competitiveness in a harsh global marketplace where only the organisations who continually evolve and innovate prosper. The finance function is not immune to this transformation process and can play a key role in its development and adoption.

Chief Financial Officers need to play a leading role to ensure data security within an organisation. Potential threats are proliferating and the financial impact of a breach of data security can be substantial. Consider how your turnover and profitability would be impacted due to a data security breach which could potentially hold your organisation to ransom or prevent users from performing their day to day activities.

At a recent Footwear Workshop organized by the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), industry leaders and experts discussed key themes and supply chain challenges in the footwear market. At this event, industry leaders highlighted the need for brands to address multiple challenges like supply chain visibility, traceability, compliance, and sustainability. Here are some other key themes:

The food and beverage industry is undergoing fundamental changes in how consumers buy and what they want to know about the products. At the same time, the industry faces an increased focus on healthy eating by consumers, companies, and governments. Adding to this is a rapidly changing competitive environment with a proliferation of new channels, producers, and products that compete with established brands and outlets.

If these challenges weren’t already enough, today’s companies are also facing unprecedented changes that stress innovation, business model evolution, and supply chain agility. Having the right products with the right content and characteristics, and the right information clearly displayed is necessary. But even all that isn’t enough to guarantee success. The products must also be positioned in the right places at the right time for customers to be able to buy—and that’s the job of the supply chain.

To keep up with all of this, an effective food and beverage supply chain must be fully in sync with the consumer through technology-enabled sensing to satisfy multiple channels with seamless visibility and fulfillment.