The Growing Role of Logistics for Food Suppliers

Logistics for food suppliers are critical for success throughout the food and beverage supply chains. Efficient, sustainable logistics can be a major competitive advantage and help meet customers’ changing needs and preferences.

Efficient Logistics in a Changing Market

Food suppliers are part of today’s rapidly changing food and beverage supply chain. Amazon and other online grocery retailers are transforming the way consumers purchase food. Now customers can order their groceries online and pick them up an hour later or have them delivered on the same day. As of 2022, over 60% of UK residents report partly or fully online shopping for groceries.

Retailers rely on food suppliers to keep up with ultra-fast service and stay competitive with Amazon. Efficient logistics are vital for accomplishing these objectives. Suppliers may also need to take on more responsibility for logistics processes in the coming years.

Growth in e-commerce is pushing the capabilities of the trucking industry. The UK is grappling with a shortage of at least 76,000 lorry drivers, limiting the number of heavy goods vehicles available at a given time. As a result, freight rates are steadily increasing and scheduling is becoming more volatile. This can leave food suppliers and retailers vulnerable to delivery gaps and delays.

Food suppliers may need to take on the role of logistics partners to combat these challenges. For instance, a produce supplier might purchase a few of their own climate controlled lorries for making deliveries directly to the grocery stores they partner with. While this is a significant investment, it removes the need to compete with the growing number of e-commerce suppliers and businesses straining the trucking industry.

Logistics Are Vital for Sustainability

Market competition isn’t the only factor raising the importance of logistics in the food and beverage industry. A growing emphasis on sustainability is putting a spotlight on logistics and supply chain emissions. Customers are at the heart of this movement. Many of today’s consumers will change their purchasing habits to buy from sustainable or carbon neutral brands.

Food suppliers play a critical role in ensuring the food and beverage industry meets the sustainability needs of consumers. For example, produce can receive specialised certifications verifying it was sustainably grown. When consumers are shopping, they now have a choice between produce marked with that certification or produce that might not be sustainable. For a growing number of people, the choice is a no-brainer.

The Food and Beverage Sustainability Trend

Logistics is becoming part of the food and beverage sustainability trend, as well. Consumers want to know about the full journey of the food they eat. Logistics can be the source of a large portion of the emissions in food products’ supply chains. So, working to develop more environmentally-friendly, carbon-neutral logistics can help food suppliers get ahead.

There are a growing number of options for accomplishing this. For example, EV startup Tevva launched the UK’s first hydrogen-electric truck in 2022. Unlike battery electric vehicles, hydrogen-powered EVs don’t need long overnight charging. Refilling the hydrogen tank is as quick as a stop at the petrol station, making this type of vehicle ideal for trucking.

Food suppliers can invest in electric lorries to cut down or eliminate their logistics emissions. They can also use sustainable packaging, such as biodegradable cardboard.

Adopting more sustainable packaging can also be a major logistics advantage with restaurant customers. Takeout boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it also highlighted the issue of restaurant plastic waste. As a result, many restaurants are shifting to sustainable suppliers and products that can offer clean packaging.

By offering biodegradable packaging, food suppliers can reduce waste and get a market edge among restaurants, grocery stores, and customers.

Logistics is Critical for Food Supplier Success

The challenges and opportunities facing food suppliers today are rapidly changing with the ebb and flow of customer preferences. Logistics is at the heart of many of these challenges and trends. When food suppliers are more involved in logistics and innovating their processes, they can get ahead of the competition and prepare for the future.