David Read: The state of supply

It’s hard not to take the pandemic personally. We all have our own view on the world, but when circumstances conspire time and time again to blow us off course, even from a plan with just a few weeks as its time horizon, it is easy to get downhearted. It’s also easy to forget that the producer, wholesaler and distributor businesses that service our sector have arguably had it even worse. Take this current lockdown for example – many suppliers have spent the first two weeks resolving issues with surplus stock, disrupted delivery scheduling, and coping with massively lower drop sizes; and will shortly need to plan re-opening on December 3rd, with absolutely no visibility on whether the sector will re-open at all, and if it does where, how and when.