If you’ve been paying attention for the last 17 months or so, you know we’re living through some pretty interesting times. On top of an ongoing pandemic, we’re experiencing one of the most difficult forecasting, pricing, costing and sourcing periods in modern business. An enduring shipping quagmire, massive labor shortages and global supply chain bottlenecks are affecting virtually every industry.
For those of us in food manufacturing, the price of essential ingredients and materials skyrocketing is an issue, but only if we’re first able to secure the volume required to keep production moving. Availability is hurdle number one. CAN we get this ingredient? This packaging item? This essential? If we’re able to fill the need, in time for production, the next question is one of cost. How much more will it cost than normal? Can we absorb this increase or will we be forced to raise price on our own customers? CAN we move price to cover the cost or are we locked into contracts?
We’re seeing major issues and shortages in the availability of packaging materials, sweeteners, starches, food colorings, fresh/frozen fruit and more. The ports continue to back up. The cost and availability of freight remains troublesome. Something’s gotta give… right?
We’re extremely fortunate to have had a strategic purchasing approach in place since long before we found ourselves in this current sticky situation. We’ve contracted ingredients where possible and aligned ourselves with incredible partners that allow us to pivot and respond real time to any and all challenges. I’m not saying we’re pandemic proof but we’ve set ourselves, and our customers, up for success in any climate.
If you’d like to learn more about how we do what we do, give us a call today 312-254-3539
Given all of the product innovation that SIS engages in on a daily basis, we are very familiar with chasing the trends of the day and find ourselves meeting the consumer in increasingly health and wellness focused grocery aisles. This has been a decade plus long process and the opportunity in the health and wellness fields has grown tremendously during that time. So while health and wellness is going nowhere, its crucial to note that Cheese and Cream Cheese pastries aren’t either. In the Pastry and Sweet Goods categories, product innovation with Cream Cheese & Cheese varieties saw a 36% compound annual growth rate between 2017 & 2019.
Moving on from incremental improvements in Health and Wellness snacking, complete re-imagination of formulas is required to keep the attention of a more educated consumer.
Increasingly, consumers are motivated to reduce or eliminate sugar and/or consume alternate natural sweeteners.
Is your next Health and Wellness/Clean Label project in need of protein fortification? SIS has developed a complete line of plant based protein fortified fillings, toppings, variegates and fruit/vegetable dips with protein addition solely from plant based sources.
At Stewart Ingredients Systems, not only are we looking to produce and sell more product, we’re always looking to reduce inefficiencies and waste. A recent study highlighting the cost-savings that some companies are able to achieve confirms our thinking: “…a British-based food manufacturer achieved a more than 300-fold return on investment by running an audit that revealed seven percent of the food it bought remained in bulk containers after they were emptied.” (Umberto Bacchi/Thomson Reuters)
November is fast approaching and it’s the perfect time to roll-out seasonal offerings for consumers over the next three months. As a R&D house that manufactures all of our custom formulated items under one roof, SIS is perfectly positioned to accommodate any seasonal concepts and equipped to do so in a rapid fashion.
Can’t stay away from the discourse surrounding consumer’s demands for better-for-you snack offerings. The intersection of on-the-go consumers who demand better-for-you category of snacks often lands in convenience store aisles, and the data suggests that the C-store segment of the market is not shrinking anytime soon. In fact, convenience store sales increased more than 5% year-to-year from ’14 to ’15 with no expectations of that trend reversing course.
It may well be past time for ingredient declaration standards to be agreed-upon between manufacturers and consumers before the food industry becomes mired in lawsuits and wasted developments. For all of the push towards health and wellness trends—which consumers have now been demanding of the market for at least a decade—it does astound that the FDA has only this year asked for public comment on what the word “Natural” means on food labeling. In May of this year, the FDA opened the topic up for public comment and as of August 2016, more than 5,000 comments have been filed in response. Now, recall again how long consumers had to wait for the Nutrition Labeling changes to be implemented into the marketplace? If the designation of what constitutes “Natural” on our food labeling takes nearly as much time, it is fair to assume that resource spend within industry by those protecting themselves from lawsuit will dwarf the spend associated with Nutrition Label changes.