“The food supply chain is breaking,” wrote John Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods – the largest meat processing company in America. The US beef industry was devastated from the chaos of the pandemic; between March 2020 and June 2021, 56 meat processing facilities suspended operations across the nation. Restaurant closings, facility shutdowns, and supply shortages from culling herds have stunted production and dramatically increased prices. This pronounced economic turbulence has necessitated burger restaurant chains to maintain the integrity of their supply chain now more than ever.
Beef prices have soared during the pandemic, with over a 20% increase between October 2020 and October 2021. Meat processing facilities across the nation were forced to shut down or suspend operations due to coronavirus outbreaks. Suppliers have faced a surge of abrupt order cancellations, leaving them with excess product they cannot sell. This bottleneck of excess supply has resulted in farmers culling herds and euthanizing cattle to reduce wasted investment on unsold livestock. The abrupt change has resulted in long-term production capacity reductions that are expected to create supply shortages and price increases for years to come.
McDonald’s the titan of all burger chains, has recently implemented categorical improvements to its supply chain sourcing and distribution efficiency – producing a significant boost in profits. The four-year, $60-million investment across its beef supply chain resulted in a staggering 30% increase in quarter-pound burger sales compared to the year prior. “The key to McDonald’s success,” said Stan Aronow, research vice president at the research and consulting firm Gartner Inc., “is skillful orchestration across a network of strategic suppliers, service providers and thousands of companies and franchise-owned stores worldwide.”
ArrowStream has a consistent history of successfully optimizing and improving the supply chains of burger restaurants through seamlessly organizing their locations and suppliers – giving them end-to-end visibility, streamlined communication, and informative metrics for future business decisions. Carl’s Jr., Red Robin, Smashburger, Shake Shack, and Sonic are already ardent proponents of the ArrowStream foodservice cloud. The platform enables automated tracking and workflow between a restaurant’s suppliers, distributors, and corporate team – providing orderly, coherent communication and swift resolution. Restaurants that adopted the ArrowStream Foodservice Management Incident solution witnessed a 50% average reduction in the time needed to solve their supply chain incidents and saw a 20% average increase in their credit recovery.
ArrowStream allows restaurants to confidently and effectively manage their supply chain – solving and preventing issues with sourcing and delivery. Having visibility into the supply chain of your restaurant not only saves time and money dealing with shipment incidents, it also allows you to anticipate potential problems such as market shortages. Simple, fast, scalable, and easy to use, the ArrowStream foodservice cloud allows rapid communication for punctual and efficient incident resolution. Leading burger chains like Carl’s Jr. have already discovered the immense benefit of the ArrowStream cloud for its ability to save time, save money, and ensure the reliability of their supply chain – especially during the present turbulence.
With the surging prices and unprecedented volatility across the American meat industry, it has become vital for burger restaurant chains to ensure the efficiency of their supply chains. Sign up here.