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The drama of
demand and supply It’s all well and good having something to sell, as long as you actually have it to sell. Valda Goodfellow talks supply and demand
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About G & G Founded by Paul and Valda Goodfellow, G & G Goodfellows is a highly creative design & Distribution Company with an amazing showroom in Little Portland Street. Offering a truly hands-on service, Goodfellows passion is to bring new and exciting, bespoke food presentation concepts to the UK’s culinary scene. As well as offering a wide variety of the world’s best branded tableware, kitchen equipment, clothing and machines, Goodfellows also collaborates closely with UK craft producers for totally unique products. It works with all sizes of restaurant and catering projects, happy to supply anything from an individual plate to a full restaurant concept.
ast weekend I trotted off excitedly to try and buy a new car. There are supply issues, I was told. You are going to have to wait! Have you not heard about the shortage of semiconductors? Well yes, of course I had, but I thought there must be some manufacturers that were better able to control their supply chain. And there are, but even luxury car manufacturers have to accept some delays. And they are by no means the only sector being hit by supply chain problems. It seems we are in the eye of a perfect storm that is not limited to the ‘chip’ industry, our own tableware sector is having to cope with a cocktail of issues including; a surge in demand created by the opening of hospitality (certainly in the UK), reduced workforce availability due to Covid, raw material shortages creating hold-ups further down the supply chain, shipping and courier issues and continued high retail demand, particularly from online sales. Spare a thought for us Brits who also have to deal with the knock-on effects of Brexit! When I was told I had to actually WAIT for my car, it did not go down
well but there was little alternative other than try my luck with a different manufacturer. This is a decision being repeated across every sector, including ours, which poses some real challenges and potential serious impact to brand loyalty. If customers must switch, they may not return to their previously favoured brand. Everyone accepts that sometimes problems occur but what counts is how those problems are handled. Where a brand/manufacturer is not
information, consolidating shipments and promoting core stock selections. This last point has been really effective in helping us deal with a surge in new customers coming to us having been let down by other suppliers; and now have critically short lead-times. I am not saying we don’t have supply issues, of course we do, more so in relation to some glassware and kitchen equipment than our exclusive ranges but we are not complacent about the challenges that are present
Our own tableware sector is having to cope with a cocktail of issues directly communicating with the enduser, service must be handled by the distributor or retailer; and there is no doubt that continued brand loyalty is most likely to be achieved where the relationship through the manufacturer/ distributer/customer chain is the strongest. We have amazing relationships with our manufacturers, who have been indomitable in their efforts to maintain supply to us. We have, in turn, taken our share of the responsibility for helping them with advance demand
in the supply chain now; and how long they may continue in the future. We put immense effort into very close communication with both manufacturers and customers to try and ensure that if we do have issues, we are offering our customers viable options they will love. Where possible we will do that from the same manufacturer but in the end, achieving customer satisfaction is paramount. What we stress to our manufacturers is that we are all in this together and that we need to work hard to maintain
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