Smucker, others rev production
The maker of Jif peanut butter and Folgers Coffee says it’s ready to meet another wave of grocery demand amid a new spike of COVID-19 cases.
JM Smucker Co. has shifted production to its most in-demand items while expanding operating hours and re-purposing underutilized facilities. New measures to promote social distancing and stop the pandemic’s spread have sparked consumers’ renewed stockpiling.
The company and the industry are “better prepared for this second or third wave,” said CEO Mark Smucker. “We have been very closely monitoring our supply chain to make sure that we can meet demand.”
Smucker isn’t the only company reporting growing demand. Over the last three weeks, demand for non-perishable items such as paper goods, canned goods, spices, broths and canned vegetables jumped 60 percent to 70 percent, according to Centricity Inc., which tracks online activity like e-commerce.
Many food companies now have bolstered manufacturing capacity to meet that demand. General Mills, for example, added 45 external production lines through contractors this year, while Campbell Soup Co. spent $40 million to expand produc
tion of Goldfish crackers. This has also led to some some less popular items being harder to find than before.
Smucker this week increased its full-year sales outlook due to elevated at-home consumption of packaged food, estimating net sales growing as much as 2 percent for fiscal 2021.