Monday, April 6, 2020

Food companies shorten product lists


Food manufacturers are pruning their product lists to focus on what’s most popular during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For example, Kraft Foods is dropping many items and is ramping up production of Kraft dinners.

“They’re (manufacturers) just trying to meet demand and provide something to eat,” said Denis Gendron, the president of United Grocers Inc., which uses combined buying clout from about a third of Canada’s food retailers to negotiate purchasing agreements with manufacturers .

“They’re doing the items they can do the fastest that are selling well.”
An example cited by the Globe zand Mail is Italpasta.

It makes 63 types of pasta, but the Ontario company is focusing on the top six cuts in its Tradizionale range of products: spaghetti, spaghettini, penne, fusilli, elbows and lasagne.

“We’re running the spaghetti 24 hours a day,” said owner and president Joseph Vitale. “People aren’t so fancy right now. They just want pasta.