In a recent article published by Tyler Durden from ZeroHedge.com, it was shared that some of the largest U.S. food distributors are struggling to keep retail shelves stocked and are bracing for a significant increase in food prices, due to labor shortages and a seriously strained supply chain.
This news has not taken us by surprise here at Azure. Our CEO David Stelzer shared with our team, back in June, that if the economic path we were on continued, we would be seeing sharp price increases and product shortages this fall.
We certainly don’t want to lead you to believe that we are immune to this situation, but we do want to assure you that we have been preparing for this since early summer.
Here are a few things we’ve been doing to prepare for these kinds of market changes:
- We've increased our inventory. Over the summer, we’ve brought in the largest amount of inventory that we’ve ever held in our warehouse. Our receiving manager has been a little nervous about where we’re going to store the next shipments; as he says, “We’re bursting at the seams.”
- Azure has strong supplier relationships. We have a longstanding value of cultivating strong relationships with our suppliers. These relationships have been built over decades and have given us the foresight to understand what affects the supply chain for each of our suppliers. This ensures that we can better prepare for our customers’ needs.
- Azure brands provide more control. For many of our bulk and ingredient products, our Azure brands (which are processed in our own manufacturing facilities on the Azure farm) give us a lot more control over our supply chain than other distributors would have. We package dry ingredients and grind grains at our state-of-the-art, SQF-certified mill, manufacture our very own carob candy, repackage wet ingredients — such as oils, vinegars and honey — at our pour manufacturing location, as well as harvest fresh fruits and vegetables from our own organic farm and orchards.
We don’t know what the future holds over the next few months, as there’s a lot of uncertainty going on, but what we do know is that at Azure, we are real people, with heart and soul, and are committed to doing whatever it takes to give the best possible service to our customers. That means, if we need more staff to fulfill orders, our executive team (including our CEO) will roll up our sleeves, grab a box and pack orders too, because no one here at Azure is "too important" to serve customers.
At Azure, we're a family, and as an Azure customer you are an extension of our family. In our family, we take care of each other and we will do whatever we can to take care of you.