A case study on strategies to deal with the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic in the food and beverage industry

Abstract

This research investigates the impacts of the novel coronavirus disease, also referred to as COVID-19 pandemic, on the food and beverage industry. It examines both short-term and medium-to-long-term impacts of the pandemic and outlines strategies to reduce the potential consequences of those impacts. To this end, we use a qualitative, multiple-case-study methodology, collecting data from eight sample companies with fourteen respondents in the food and beverage industry in Bangladesh. The findings show that the short-term impacts of this pandemic, such as product expiry, shortage of working capital, and limited operations of distributors, are severe, while the medium-to-long-term impacts promise to be complex and uncertain. In the longer term, various performance metrics, such as return on investment by the firms, the contribution of the firms to the gross domestic product (GDP), and employee size, are all expected to decrease. Moreover, firms may need to restructure their supply chain and build relationships with new distributors and trade partners. The study proposes several strategies that managers in this sector can adopt to improve resiliency in the changing environment during and after the COVID-19 era. While this research is novel and contributes to both theory and practice, it does not consider small and medium-sized companies in the food and beverage industry. Therefore, the impacts and strategies we identify may not apply to smaller companies.

Strategic framework for developing resilience in Agri-Food Supply Chains during COVID 19 pandemic

“…Kumar, Shankar, and Yadav (2008) have discussed many dimensions of flexibility in the supply chain including the sourcing and distribution flexibility so that the procurement and the distribution of the product can be continued without any hurdle. To maintain flexibility in the inventory system, First Expiry First Out (FEFO) and product rotation are suggested to minimise the risk of product expiry (Chowdhury et al 2020).…”

Air Pollutant Levels during the Large-scale Social Restriction Period and its Association with Case Fatality Rate of COVID-19

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A supply chain disruption risk mitigation model to manage COVID-19 pandemic risk

“…For example, the recent novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) as disruption risk is creating complexity in supply chain operations since November 2019 (Lopes de Sousa Jabbour et al 2020). This pandemic outbreak destroys the whole supply chain activities by making restrictions in air transportation facilities, border closure, unavailability of raw material supply, and entire shutdown of manufacturing activities (Paul and Chowdhury 2020a;Chowdhury et al 2020;Paul and Chowdhury 2020b;Rowan and Galanakis 2020). Also, the recent estimated data confirmed that the recent pandemic outbreak is a rare case of supply chain disruption that is impacting the global economy dramatically (Majumdar et al 2020;Karmaker et al 2020;Taqi et al 2020).…”