We are facing a global food crisis. With inflation at levels not witnessed in decades, food prices have soared by 13.1% from this time last year - despite already being at record highs.
With Russia and the Ukraine representing a crucial portion of global exports in key commodities, it’s clear how much an impact the Ukrainian crisis has had on this inflationary spike. However, with the Chinese growing season impacted by floods and the shipping and logistical consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic still lingering, there’s a host of contributing factors that we need to consider when navigating the current climate.
As a business, we empathise with the rising anxiety our clients and their people will be facing right now – especially considering it coincides with such a steep rise in energy prices. That’s why at Compass Ireland, we are taking a collective focus on this crisis, making how we mitigate its impact on others a business priority.
One way we’re approaching this mitigation is by working with culinary teams on an on-going basis to review product specifications and ensure we’re sourcing cost-effective alternatives. This means we’ll choose unbranded rather than branded items and swap like-for-like products where we can – for example, using chicken thighs instead of chicken fillets where appropriate and, as a result, seeing a potential saving of €30K per year.
Another approach we’ve taken is the consolidation of some of our ranges, in which we’ve already seen a drop from 21% to 14% in our frozen bakery range, for example. As well as this, we’ve managed to reduce the inflation of our chicken supply costs from 40% to 30% just by extending our contracts with suppliers.
Going forwards, our dedicated inflation project team will continue to review ways in which we can mitigate the inflationary increases and help futureproof the relationships we have with our valued clients and suppliers.
