Food and beverage futures
Until recently, business continuity had not always been at the top of the food and beverage agenda. That changed as events such as the pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine tested many organizations’ resources and supply chains.
Extreme weather events have become more frequent and intense, while global conflicts and changes in climate threaten harvests and production of essential commodities.
High energy costs, environmental concerns, geopolitical tensions, and trade disputes have become common, posing risks at all stages of the food and drink supply chain. The risk of another pandemic is also very real, potentially affecting people and animals.
This contributes to increasing uncertainty and raises the possibility of a break in operational continuity should a major stress event occur.
01
Understand which processes, activities, and services are most critical to your operation and assess the main threats to those functions. Are there any that can be addressed quickly to avoid risks to business continuity in future? For example, installing a generator in a plant to keep production going if the power goes down.
02
Consider measures such as nearshoring some supplies, sourcing critical supplies from multiple providers, establishing alert systems for emerging threats (such as tropical storms), and holding joint exercises and business continuity reviews with key suppliers.
03
This is more than just a fire evacuation plan or crisis management plan; it should be a detailed plan for recovering your critical business operations or processes. Make sure it includes detail such as: what needs to be done, by whom, expected recovery times and objectives; incident response roles, responsibilities and actions; which functions need to be recovered in what order; how to communicate about a temporary loss of service or production.
04
Make sure relevant employees know about the business continuity plan and what their role is. Test the plan regularly, either through a desktop or live exercise, so employees can practice their roles and you can see if anything needs to be refined.
05
Review and audit the business continuity plan annually to check that it is being updated, people are being trained, and it is still fit for purpose. Feed the audit results back to top management so they can review what’s working well and identify any shortfalls that need to be addressed.
WTW hopes you found the general information provided in this publication informative and helpful. The information contained herein is not intended to constitute legal or other professional advice and should not be relied upon in lieu of consultation with your own legal advisors. In the event you would like more information regarding your insurance coverage, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. In North America, WTW offers insurance products through licensed entities, including Willis Towers Watson Northeast, Inc. (in the United States) and Willis Canada Inc. (in Canada).
