Managing During COVID-19 - Trinidad & Tobago Fine Cocoa Co. Ltd.

It was very challenging as most of our clients in the hospitality, tourism and culinary sector suffered a direct and abrupt halt to their operations.  The impact for them was severe and detrimental to their future and resulted in an immediate decline in our sales and production. Our response to this was to quickly refocus the business and improve on our marketing and sales activities.

We had already complied to international safety standards. However, there were further improvements throughout the whole operation to protect staff and ensure our production continued to comply, and in some areas exceed, the quality food standards. This included reviewing daily sanitization practices, improving production PPE equipment and establishing new safety procedures.

We used the quiet time during Covid-19 restrictions to reflect on our achievements and improve on areas of weakness or under-performance. This included adjustments related to improving our internal systems, factory procedures, marketing, social media etc. Very rarely do businesses get time to stop and assess their efficiency and effectiveness beyond an economic indicator such as revenue and profit. This downtime gave us time to refocus, plan and reengage with our customers in a manner that reflected the current business environment.

I think the changing times have created opportunities especially in home delivery services and e-commerce platforms. We hope these changes will strengthen businesses to be more efficient in servicing customers as well as create savings with direct trade. The crisis has also increased the demand for products and services to be ‘convenient’ for the consumer-ease-of-purchase systems that will be fundamental for the future.

I sincerely hope the recent challenges have highlighted the need to promote domestic food security with the objective of reducing reliance on imports and where possible, more ethical and organic food production for a healthier diet.

The obvious answer will be lack of sales. However, the greatest challenge has been the wider services we depend on such as food packaging, printing, mechanical and electrical support for the factory. The closure restricted the access to these services which reduced our capacity to service the limited customers we retained.

The future is still uncertain and we will only know the true picture of the implications and impacts as we return to a form of normality post-Covid. However, it is the wider global economic effects that will be our concern especially as a manufacturer and exporter. 

The key lesson for us has been how we use the time during the lockdown in a positive manner. The business landscape may have changed so therefore we must change with it and adapt. The speed at which necessary changes occur will be vital to the company’s survival. Another issue has been the transparency of information to reassure the team on the plans for the future and ensure everyone supports it. Without the commitment of the staff it will be harder to manage the adaptation process.

I think quality assurance will become more mainstream especially in the food sector. Transparency on the origin of food and managing risk of potential contaminants will be reinforced to ensure food hygiene standards are complied with.

Areas of high human interaction will have greater controls to reduce the risk of cross contamination and speeding of bacteria. In the food service industry this would relate to improved sanitization procedures and servicing customers through a range of sales strategies such as e-commerce, buy-and-collect, home deliveries etc.

The best preparation I can think of would be to prepare for the unexpected because we have no clear idea of the new reality at present. However, similar to the aircraft design industry, there should be contingency planning for a range of outcomes for the short, medium and long term.