Manufacturing: Food and Beverage Industry
Food and beverage products manufacturers are among the most heavily regulated industries. Companies face strict lot tracking and must manage recalls, allergens, nutritional labeling, and more. Other challenges include process manufacturing production methods, expiration dates for perishable inventory, catch weights, byproducts, and flexible pricing with promotions and allowances for customer returns due to spoilage and damage. In this guide, we discuss Manufacturing: Food and Beverage Industry.
Food and beverage product manufacturers using legacy ERP systems lack integration, automation, and information to boost profits, reduce costs, and improve the customer experience.
Modern ERP applications provide connected commerce solutions for online storefronts, brick-and-mortar sales, direct store delivery (DSD), and electronic data interchange (EDI). Mobility, cloud computing, and open APIs are essential for growing organizations to manage the complex nature of their products, supply chains, and unique market requirements.
This Industry Digest provides an overview of the Food and Beverage Products Manufacturing market with insights into the industry’s future, critical features to consider when evaluating a new ERP application, and a list of resources to get more information.
The food manufacturing industry can be difficult to identify as many companies engaged in food manufacturing are categorized as farming and agriculture, retail, distribution, marketing, and other types of businesses.
Leading food and beverage companies include Pepsico, Nestle, Kraft, Tyson Foods, Anheiser-Busch, General Mills, Conagra, Frito-Lay, Unilever, and Dean Foods.
However, most businesses are smaller entrepreneurial companies with ninety percent having fewer than 100 employees.
Food and beverage product manufacturers provide consumer packaged goods and ingredients used in the global food supply chain. Many products are sold through distribution channels, while others are sold through foodservice delivery (DSD) companies to retailers or commercial facilities such as hospitals, restaurants, and nursing homes. Recent trends such as locally sourced farm-to-table products, a growing interest in specialty foods, and online meal kit delivery have increased direct-to-consumer sales.
In addition, growth in micro-breweries and craft liquors is also disrupting the market with unique products and new go-to-market requirements. Food and beverage product manufacturers are categorized under SIC Code 20 and NAICS Code 311. A manufacturing industry breakdown for US companies by employee size is provided below in the eBook on Manufacturing: Food and Beverage Industry Digest