Category: Produce Blueprints

Every year, this Blueprints department discusses a company that closed its doors during the prior year. Our objective is to see if we, as credit extenders, can learn from the company’s decline or help reinforce processes to minimize the impact. For those who were on the short end, this case study will perhaps provide hindsight and lead to more proactive steps when the next customer begins to fail, because it will happen.

Any problems at arrival should be noted on the delivery receipt with specificity.

Did you hear that? Listen closely and pay attention, or you might miss it. It’s faint, but distinguishable. There it is again! In case you can’t recognize it, it’s the sound of the supermarket shopping experience dying.

One capacity management strategy advocated by the experts is to use a mix of contracts and spot market rates.

Given that there is no immediate trucking capacity relief on the horizon, produce companies must be prepared for a challenging 2022.

While truck driver issues are the tip of the capacity shortage iceberg, there are several other contributors lurking below the waterline. It is imperative to navigate around them as well.

A big contributing factor to the truck driver shortage is demographics.

In recent months, images of congested ports have filled the news and prompted calls to action. As ports expanded their hours to reduce the backlog of ships waiting to be unloaded, a less visible bottleneck entered the spotlight.

As we look back over the past two years and consider all that was thrown at us, we are mindful of several key words or terms that sustained us, guided us, and energized us.

A number of questions face the industry when it comes to consumer behavior in 2022.