National food and drink manufacturing survey opens
Food Manufacture Group has launched its annual online, UK-wide state-of-the-industry survey, canvassing the opinions of managers in all categories of food and drink processing.
Everyone taking part in the anonymous survey, which takes only a few minutes to complete, will automatically be entered into a free prize draw to win £100 worth of Amazon vouchers. The name of the winner will be published in the July edition of Food Manufacture magazine, alongside the results, which we also highlight online.
Questions cover five core issues vital to firms of all sizes, such as market conditions and trading relationships.
Traditional retailers struggling
There has rarely been a more dynamic and exciting time to be working in the industry, but it’s one that raises a host of new challenges. The shopping landscape is dramatically and permanently changing, with traditional retailers struggling against discount formats and web vendors.
Virtually all the supermarkets found the past year tough, even the mighty Tesco. But the Coop Group and Morrisons have faced the biggest upheavals. The Co-op Group reported full-year losses of £2.5bn on April 17 and Morrisons claimed a £176M pre-tax loss for the year to February 2, versus pre-tax profit of £879M for the previous year.
“Morrisons loss might be disconcerting for some observers, but it does reflect a necessary level of investment from the retailer in order to reflect a changing retail landscape,” said Jon Copestake, retail analyst at the Economist Business Intelligence Unit, at the time.
“With discounters undermining the market share of mid-market sellers such as Morrisons and Tesco, bearishness for the coming year is also unsurprising.”
As the UK economy slowly emerges from a lengthy and gritty recession, all the signs are it will be some time before consumers loosen their purse strings. How this will affect suppliers remains to be seen.
Government demands
Meanwhile, product developers continue to wrestle with government demands to drive down salt and sugar content in foods while delivering commercially viable and innovative products.
And, as the implications of the 2013 horsemeat scandal are picked through by experts, questions remain over how the industry can resist reputational and financial damage caused by food fraud.
In last year’s survey, 87% of respondents said they thought horsemeat had dealt a significant blow to the sector, with some thinking it had changed supplier-customer rules of engagement. How have things shaped up in 2013–2014?
All respondents to our survey need to do is click some boxes, but participants can feel free to add their comments as well if there are important issues they want to address.
So, to have your say, grab a quick coffee and whip through our survey.
