Prepare for food industry shake-ups, says IGD expert

In this exclusive video, Walton tells FoodManufacture.co.uk much of the recent turmoil shaking the foundations of the grocery industry could have been predicted with a bit of thought.

“As managers it’s very easy to say that any misfortune was a ‘black swan’, because no one will blame you for failing to predict what is unpredictable,”​ Walton said, borrowing from the terminology of former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, referring to unpredictable events.

Recent misfortunes​

“But in fact, a lot of our recent misfortunes affecting the UK as a whole and food and drink specifically haven’t been black swans at all. They have actually been what I call grey swans. They were unpredicted, but they were not unpredictable, even with the information that we had at the time.”​

Watch this video for Walton’s examples of future ‘grey swans’ facing the food industry and how he believes the food industry should react.