Context: supply chain pressure
Who could have foreseen the most unexpected problem that manufacturers and restaurant owners around the world had to deal with in 2020 and 2021? How quickly supply chain challenges unfolded. You have certainly read it in the newspaper, and perhaps you have experienced it yourself. Many restaurant owners and merchants have testified to significant delays in the delivery of goods as well as shortages of certain brands and certain products – all this in a context of rising prices. These delays are not insignificant since they cause financial damage to the partners, but they also break the trust in terms of commercial relations.
To overcome this issue, many companies have invoked "force majeure" to relieve themselves of their contractual obligations to their business partners, and hence exempt themselves from penalty payments and resulting damages.
At Agropur, as the exclusive supplier of cheese for several Canadian and American partners, it was unthinkable to not supply our merchandise. It would have caused enormous losses to our partners. Remember that our products are often the key ingredient in our partners' finished products. Can you imagine, a pizza without cheese? A poutine with no cheese curds?
The challenge: reliability and fluidity of the supply chain
Let's rewind for a moment and remember the climate in which the pandemic started. On March 13, 2020, the Government of Quebec declared a state of health emergency throughout the province. Overnight, we all found ourselves confined to our homes. A week later, they closed all non-essential businesses and services. Over the course of a night, life was no longer the same for anyone. But one thing was clear to all the teams at Agropur: leaving our partners in the dark was out of the question!
At that time, many shops and restaurants were closed, however, online orders with delivery were getting high demand. Our partners were very worried since other suppliers had canceled or delayed their deliveries.
We had trouble finding delivery people and even transportation equipment. We had a lot of constraints regarding the receipt of goods. Despite everything, all teams combined, we quickly proposed solutions to meet the logistic challenges and deliver our products to our customers, no matter what.
The solutions: stay active and proactive
Our goal then was (and still is): to manage supply chain disruptions while limiting costs for our business partners.
No customer ran out of cheese during the pandemic.
At Agropur, from the start of the pandemic, we have seen real mutual support between employees. Without waiting, all our teams gathered. Their motto? Find immediate solutions to support our partners and deliver our products no matter what.
Here are some of the concrete actions we have implemented since the beginning of the pandemic:
- We broke silos to work as a team and find innovative solutions;
- We rapidly increased our inventories;
- We have found new delivery routes: new roads and sometimes even other means of transport;
- We have taken action to increase our resources to help our customers throughout the pandemic.
No one questioned whether we would do it, but how we would do it.
None of our partners ran out of products. We are proud to have received many congratulations from them and, above all, to have been able to maintain their trust during these unprecedented times.
