Are you prepared for the challenges ahead?

The world has not been an easy place to trade post-pandemic, post-Brexit, and post-mini budget, with costs of supplies soaring, labour shortages, and inflated living costs causing consumers’ purse strings to tighten. Like many others, pizza, pasta and Italian food businesses are struggling like never before. Who would have predicted that we would come out of the various lockdowns to such challenging times.

Many in the industry are talking about their worries, with some warning they are struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel amid the current costs crisis as many factors affect their business and the financial state of it.

Jim Winship, director of the Pizza Pasta & Italian Food Association (PAPA), reflects the mood of the organisation’s members, saying: “With costs continuing to rise and serious industry labour shortages, food inflation is unavoidable, and we anticipate that it is likely to continue well into this year.

“Although the wholesale cost of energy has come down, it is not being reflected in business energy bills which are adding to inflated living costs.

“Members are being quite open with their situations and are seeking support and advice from the Association. In my opinion, we urgently need to see some government action to resolve the labour shortages as some food businesses are having to reduce operating hours and rationalise ranges due to shortages of people. This is affecting productivity and even the viability of some businesses.

“We have suggested to the government in the past that there should be a better temporary work visa system to ease these pressures, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. Temporary workers are not the same as long-term immigrants as they tend to stay here only a handful of years.

“We will be doing all we can to help our members, especially the independents, as times are not going to get much easier in the short term. However, the economic projections going forward are that things should start to ease this year.”

So What Can We Do

“Now is not the time to bury our heads in the sand and hope the economic woes of the moment will have gone away when we rise again. Instead, we need to take stock and find positive solutions,” Jim Winship continues.

“The reality is that since the Pandemic et al the world has changed. Even attitudes to work/life balances have shifted and realistically they are unlikely to change back any time soon, so we need to plan for a new world order where we make greater use of technology; where systems are streamlined for greater eficiency; and so forth.

“The latest developments in AI technology where you can ask a bot to write a letter for you or create a new pack design or even a photograph, is just the start of an exciting new era of technology that is beginning to emerge.

“As we have seen with recessions in the past, those who tend to get found out are the businesses that lose direction and are not forward thinking enough.

“We all need to be planning now for a different future and to be thinking positively about what’s round the corner. Reality is that we live in a world where consumers want convenience and are prepared to pay extra to get it the instant they want it – hence the rise of the delivery services in recent years. Who would have thought a few years ago that consumers would be prepared to pay someone to deliver them a tube of toothpaste because they had run out.

“The more people put lifestyle ahead of work; embrace hybrid working from home etc., the greater the demand will be for deliveries and for getting out of the house to socialise with friends because they can no longer do that at work.

“While the cost of living challenges are undoubtedly depressing sales at some levels, these underlying trends remain strong and I believe they will emerge stronger than ever as consumer confidence returns and we need to be ready for them by having our businesses in good shape to take advantage of demand.”