18
CLH DIGITAL
Issue 121
Leveraging Technology in Times of Change - How Food and Beverage Manufacturers Can Benefit from the Cloud
By Janez Sodja, Loftware (www.loftware.com) Director of Field Sales, EMEA
A NEED FOR CHANGE In today's post-pandemic world, economic volatility, shifting politics, and a climate emergency are all forcing companies to operate with greater agility and pace. This is no different for organisations operating in the food and beverage sector. In order to maintain business and obtain a competitive edge, these organisations must have their finger on the pulse of external affairs to be able to pivot and adapt to changing landscapes.
AN EVER-CHANGING LANDSCAPE - THE FOOD AND BEVERAGE SECTOR The last few years have marked a period of significant change for food and beverage manufacturers. Already heavily regulated, this sector has seen a raft of regulatory changes across the globe. These aim to ensure that food labels offer consistency and traceability whilst also, and most importantly, informing consumers about the contents of the food and drinks they are consuming. To summarise just some examples, In April 2022, the UK saw the introduction of mandatory calorie labelling on menus for all out-of-home food businesses with over 250 employees. Prior to this, in October 2021, “Natasha’s Law” came into effect, aiming to strengthen standards around allergens and food safety. Meanwhile, in the US, the FDA recently updated The Nutrition Facts label requirements to help consumers make better informed food choices. In Mexico, the regulation NOM-051-SCFI/SSA12010, which was published in 2020, also updated the required commercial and health information contained on food and beverage labels. Manufacturers and distributors of all sizes must grapple with this challenging and ever-evolving regulatory landscape – not only the requirements that already exist, but also those that have just or will imminently come into effect. For example, on October 1st 2022, vegan meat products will need to abide by new regulations on their labelling across France. In the UK, there have been calls for an industry-wide carbon labelling scheme to outline the climate impact of each product on supermarket shelves. Similarly motivated by a drive towards
sustainability, other UK retailers, including Marks & Spencer, have recently decided to scrap ‘best before’ dates on fruit and vegetables to reduce food waste. Such changes to labelling can be complex, especially if goods are manufactured, distributed, and sold across several markets, all with different regulatory rules. Fortunately, the cloud enables companies to manage multiple variations with ease.
THE ANSWER LIES IN THE CLOUD This onslaught of regulatory changes has prompted many food and beverage manufacturers, as well as partners and suppliers throughout the supply chain, to recognise the importance a cloud-based labelling strategy. By adopting the cloud, food businesses can manage limitless variations and dynamically change labels based on what needs to be displayed, thus simplifying the route to compliance and avoiding potential penalties and fines resulting from food labelling errors. The good news is that deploying a cloud-based labelling solution is quick and easy and such a solution could be fully operational in time for these imminent regulation changes. Adopting a cloud-based labelling solution not only future-proofs organisations against upcoming changes to label content, whether that be from consumer demand or regulatory changes, it’s also a strategic enabler of supply chain agility and business operations, ensuring the movement of parts and products – upstream and downstream – without delays or disruptions. Cloud-first labelling improves scalability, configurability, standardisation, and reliability across the enterprise. It can also provide businesses with improved cashflow – this is illustrated by Loftware’s Top 5 Trends report for 2022, a survey of 1000 professionals from organisations across all major industries and 55 countries, which found that 83% of industry professionals believe they would generate significant cost savings by consolidating under a single labelling solution.
ARE YOU READY FOR FUTURE CHANGES? Many businesses are already leveraging the cloud to thrive in the present and prepare for the future. According to our research, 42% of businesses have already moved to the cloud for their enterprise applications. What’s more, almost three quarters (73%) of companies believe the cloud will be the preferred method for labelling applications within the next three years. This compares to just 50% of respondents reporting their company’s likelihood of adopting a cloud-based solution a year ago. As society continues to face unprecedented economic and environmental challenges, those businesses that are yet to adopt the cloud risk lagging behind their peers. Among other business-boosting benefits, they will miss out on greater agility, cost savings, and guaranteed compliance no matter what the future brings.
Majority of Customers Have a Positive Experience with Customer Services Robots The majority of customers have a positive experience when dealing with service robots, according to new research from Durham University Business School. The study found that interacting with robots triggers emotions of joy, love, surprise, interest and excitement for customers, whilst discontent is mainly expressed when customers cannot use service robots due to them malfunctioning. This research was conducted by Dr Zhibin Lin, Professor of Marketing at Durham University Business School, alongside colleagues from Smith School of Business, Queen’s University, Audencia Business School and Jimei University. The researchers wanted to understand consumers’ emotions which arose as a result of robot-customer encounters, and whether these were positive or negative experiences.
Professor Zhibin Lin says, “Service robots have been increasingly adopted in hospitality service settings in recent years and large hotel chains have gradually adopted their services for housekeeping and butler services, interacting with customers and fulfilling concierge and front-desk tasks. Previous opinion has been that customers felt uneasiness and discomfort when being served by robots, however this research suggests that customers actually, on the whole, have more positive interactions with robots and enjoy the experience of being served by one”. Catering to customer’s emotions is particularly important in consumption experiences. In the hospitality industry it is important that customers are not just served, but they also have a positive experience too. For managers, this research offers insight into the type of experience that customers have when confronted with a robot server instead of a human one.
To do so, the researchers extracted a sample of 9,707 customers reviews from two major social media platforms (Ctrip and TripAdvisor), encompassing 412 hotels in eight countries. By using a machine learning model to identify the hotels which had been reviewed on their own robot-powered customer service, the researchers were able to determine the emotion a customer felt when experiencing robot customer service i.e. joy, anger, surprise.
The research clearly shows that using robot servers can be a huge differentiator for a hotel chain, creating a novel and unique experience for customers. The research states that the majority of customers have positive opinions and experiences with robot servers, showing strong support for the implementation of customer service robots.
The feeling of ‘Joy’ was felt by over 60% of customers when dealing with robots in a customer service role. ‘Fear’ was the second most felt emotion by customers, encompassing 28% of the reviews. Whilst other feelings of anger (5%), neutral (4%) and sadness (1%) featured in the reviews.
However, negative experiences are still experienced. Therefore, Professor Lin warns that managers must learn from such occurrences and focus on improving service quality, increasing functionality and humanrobot interactions.
The results of the study also showed that many customers chose these specific hotels due to the fact they operated with customer service robots, showing that hotels can not only use them for convenience but also a selling point to customers too.
The researchers also recommend that hotel chains ensure that the adoption of robots does not impact on employment numbers, and that they also do not promote themselves as a ‘robot hotel’, as this is likely to create high expectations and potentially disappoint customers.
Worlds no.3 Vodka Brand Appoints UK Distributor MASPEX, the Leading Polish food group have announced the appointment of Paragon Brands as the distribution partner for their ubrówka premium vodka Brand. Maspex acquired ubrówka as part of the purchase of the CEDC Business from Roust Corporation (who acquired the brand in 2013) in February 2022 - returning the brand to full Polish ownership and severing all ties to Russia. ubrówka is the no.3 vodka brand in the world by Volume (in 2021) and the worlds no.1 Polish Vodka Brand, sold in over 130 countries, with a history dating back over 500 years. Zubrowka Bison Grass is typically served in the iconic ‘Apple-Zu’ cocktail made with cloudy apple juice. Chris Jones, MD of Paragon Brands, commented ‘we are honored to have been chosen by Maspex to represent this iconic global brand within the UK, where the vodka category is currently in strong
growth as consumers switch out of the declining Gin category and seek out premium vodka brands with heritage and a point of difference’. Marcin wiatło & Aleksandra Zygmunt, country managers at Maspex and Members of the Board of Directors at Maspex UK Ltd commented: We are very happy to be working with Paragon brands representing the ubrówka porfolio in the UK, they bring a wealth of industry experience and reach for ubrówka and we look forward to growing the brand together in the UK. For more information about the Zubrowka range or Paragon Brands, visit www.paragonbrands.co.uk. +44 (0)161 390 0019