Restaurant Exodus Has Food Giants Rushing to Stock Supermarkets
America’s top food companies are rushing to meet a spike in demand as panic buying sets in at supermarkets, with consumers preparing to stay at home -- and eat in -- in ways they’ve never done before.
Americans spend more than half of their food budget eating out. With governors from Texas to Illinois only allowing delivery or pick-up services at restaurants and restrictions on socializing, consumers are flocking to stores, picking up everything from meat to milk to pasta and tomato sauce to stock their freezers and pantries.
“If you are geared up to cater to food services, then it’s not just flicking a switch,” said Nick Fereday, executive director for food and consumer trends at Rabobank. “Even the size of the can, it’s not the industrial-sized can of tomatoes that you would put on a store shelf.” There’s no major food shortages for now, it’s a matter of adjusting the distribution, Fereday said.
Tyson is making its “most-significant shift” ever to produce more chicken, beef and pork that’s favored by supermarket shoppers, rather than cuts that restaurants use. Campbell Soup Co. is churning out more cans of its iconic soups, along with increasing output of snacks and Spaghetti O’s. Poultry giant Sanderson Farms Inc. said it is adding Saturday shifts at its five plants that process chicken for grocery-store customers, and is ready to convert two other plants to process more. Dairy Farmers of America is taking a variety of steps to ramp up output and is producing more popular items such as gallon and half-gallon jugs and limiting milk quarts.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-18/food-giants-rush-to-stock-grocery-shelves-in-new-eating-in-era?srnd=premium