Recently, social media has been flooded with posts saying 'I am at work, working online.' Major companies have responded to the national call to delay work and promote online office to avoid crowd gatherings and slow the spread of the epidemic. However, the epidemic has persisted, and the number of confirmed cases is increasing daily. Regardless of the epidemic's changes, society must continue to live and consume.

Earlier, on February 11, at a State Council press conference on joint prevention and control of the pneumonia epidemic, Cong Liang, member of the Party Leadership Group and Secretary-General of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that currently, from a national perspective, provinces other than Hubei are gradually resuming work and production, especially in key areas such as critical medical supplies, energy, food, transportation, and logistics, where enterprises have started operations one after another.

At the same time, major food and beverage companies have also resumed production to ensure market order and stable supply during this special period. After all, although people's travel is restricted, it does not mean they will eat fewer meals or stop using toilet paper due to the epidemic.

Mask manufacturers need no introduction; they have been working overtime without rest since the outbreak. However, it's not just masks being hoarded. A couple of days ago, I went to the supermarket and found that although the shelves were not being ransacked, they were almost swept clean. In particular, instant noodles, as emergency reserve supplies, have become somewhat 'scarce and valuable.'

Silent 'Volunteering'

Fortunately, according to reporters, Master Kong has gradually resumed production in its factories across the country while ensuring the health and safety of its employees. Currently, nearly a thousand employees have returned to production and management positions.

It is reported that Tianjin Dingyi Factory is the largest of Master Kong's 14 instant noodle factories and also the largest instant noodle factory in the country, serving as an emergency reserve unit. To meet the needs of the epidemic, Tianjin Dingyi Factory began preparations for early resumption as early as New Year's Eve. With strong government support, the Tianjin factory resumed work at 20:00 on January 28 and gradually restored production. Currently, three production lines are operating, with a daily output of over 4 million packs of instant noodles.

At the same time, Master Kong is not the only FMCG company to resume production. According to incomplete statistics from New Distribution, other companies that have resumed production to ensure basic material supply during this special period include:

Uni-President 75% of its factories have resumed work, mainly producing instant noodles and beverages. To combat the epidemic and ensure sufficient inventory of basic livelihood materials, Uni-President, while strictly implementing government epidemic prevention requirements and ensuring employee health and safety, had employees from multiple departments return to work early on January 30. Currently, Uni-President's headquarters in Shanghai officially resumed work on February 10.

Toly Bread Shenyang factory's return-to-work rate reached 90%. As of February 12, the return-to-work rate of workers at Toly Bread's three factories in Shenyang reached 90%. Before employees started work, the company conducted close tracking and repeated screening to ensure they had not traveled to or been in contact with key areas or people within 14 days, and provided strict pre-job training. Currently, Toly Bread's production capacity in Shenyang has recovered to about 85% of pre-holiday levels, with a daily output of 120 tons. A Toly Bread spokesperson said that all employees will do their utmost to increase capacity to ensure market stability and product supply.

Budweiser Shanghai headquarters officially resumed work on February 10, 2020. Budweiser China stated that the Shanghai headquarters has responded to the government's epidemic prevention call, offering employees options such as working from home, online work, and staggered commuting. Business departments and factories in other regions will determine resumption dates according to local government regulations and will also implement relevant health and safety measures.

Nestlé China said that since February 10, most Nestlé sites have begun to resume work in an orderly manner. This week, the Beijing headquarters has adopted a flexible work system, and employees who can work from home may choose to do so.

At the same time, Nestlé said it has introduced some benefits and regulations during this special period, such as allowing employees to take taxis to and from work with full reimbursement; discouraging gatherings for meetings; and staggering meal times to avoid lunch gatherings. In addition, due to the sudden outbreak, Nestlé plans to actively procure masks through global purchasing and by encouraging overseas employees to buy them, and will distribute them to employees after resuming work on February 10.

Mengniu During the Spring Festival, some employees in the production and sales systems were also working. Currently, nationwide, except for those whose positions require them to be at the workplace (such as production, logistics, and some sales personnel ensuring supply), all other employees work from home.

Recently, the State Administration for Market Regulation launched a campaign for food and drug and other livelihood products to 'protect prices, quality, and supply.' Mengniu responded to the call and announced that it will accelerate capacity recovery, smooth logistics and transportation, maintain price stability, and enrich market supply according to dairy market demand.

Feihe said that to ensure sufficient stock during the epidemic and keep the 'rations' for millions of Chinese babies uninterrupted, Feihe's frontline production and transportation have never stopped.

Beingmate said, 'Currently, some of our bases are persisting in production, while other bases are actively applying for resumption.' During the Spring Festival, the factory in Anda continued production, with main dairy products produced in an orderly manner; the other four factories have submitted resumption applications to local governments and are awaiting approval. Beingmate pointed out that logistics may become one of the biggest challenges. However, Beingmate emphasized that since main products have safety stock, 'there will be no shortage impact,' but some small categories may experience brief delivery delays due to raw and auxiliary materials and resumption time.

Hangzhou Wahaha Group achieved orderly resumption on February 10, with all employees meeting health management requirements back at work. Eight-treasure porridge, beverages, and other daily consumer goods are continuously coming off the production lines. It is reported that the resumption rate of Wahaha's more than 80 production bases nationwide exceeds 80%, focusing on producing eight-treasure porridge, packaged drinking water, and other livelihood materials. Other production bases are also resuming work one after another.

Zhejiang Swire Coca-Cola officially resumed production on February 10. Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, the factory, originally scheduled to end its Spring Festival holiday on January 31, postponed its official resumption by one week. Currently, two fully automatic production lines are arranged, with 120 employees confirmed to work after screening 2,100 people, producing 1.51 million bottles of beverages daily.

COFCO Coca-Cola Shaanxi factory established an epidemic prevention and control leadership group on January 29 and formulated a detailed 'Emergency Plan for Response to the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic.' At the same time, it organized comprehensive and regular disinfection of the workplace to prepare for resumption.

On February 3, with approval from relevant departments, COFCO Coca-Cola Shaanxi factory officially resumed work. On February 10, it fully resumed work. Currently, the factory is comprehensively and orderly promoting overall business operations. All departments are cooperating and taking a series of effective measures to ensure that related businesses get on track as soon as possible.

Nongfu Spring is a provincial-level key emergency response enterprise for daily necessities in Zhejiang Province, a key enterprise participating in epidemic prevention and control, and a livelihood supply enterprise. The factory began working overtime before the Chinese New Year to ensure the supply of drinking water. Starting from February 3, they disinfected the entire park. On February 10, the Yangshengtang-Nongfu Spring Group headquarters officially resumed work.

China Resources C'estbon Six factories are fully engaged in resuming production to ensure the supply of drinking water.

Mondelez Earlier, on the sixth day of the Chinese New Year, the company officially announced that employees in mainland China would have their resumption delayed to February 10. It is reported that in the following week, Mondelez employees whose work nature allows remote work can apply to work from home after communicating with their supervisors. The company also said it is actively liaising with relevant departments in various regions to restore business operations as soon as possible. At the same time, it will actively cooperate with local epidemic prevention and control management to ensure everyone can resume work with peace of mind.

Junlebao To ensure the normal supply of infant formula, Junlebao Dairy began urgently recalling employees to work from the second day of the Chinese New Year, coordinating increased production, urgently dispatching logistics vehicles, and strengthening logistics shipments.

Currently, all of the company's milk powder factories are operating at full capacity. The company also revealed that within 10 days, it completed delivery with more than 200 transport vehicles, completing distribution to nearly 200 regions across more than 20 provinces nationwide.

Conclusion:

As companies resume work and production one after another, the impact of the epidemic on the food and beverage industry will gradually decrease. According to TF Securities, instant noodle products, meat products, and condiments are all essential consumer goods for ensuring people's livelihoods, with relatively early resumption progress, and they resumed work ahead of the end of the statutory holiday to ensure supply. At the same time, dairy demand is less affected, and the resumption pace is relatively normal.

Whether during or after the epidemic, resumption is a hot topic for many manufacturing companies. Due to epidemic prevention and control, Spring Festival holidays have been extended in various places, but companies urgently need to start production as soon as possible to ensure market supply, so companies are actually very anxious.

The safest approach is to resume work in batches. For example, sales can start a few days later without much impact, but if assembly line workers don't work, production cannot happen. If large-scale resumption is not possible, priority should be given to those who must work, and other types of work should be staggered.

In addition, New Distribution reminds companies that have resumed or are preparing to resume work that ensuring the safety of everyone around them is the top priority under the current severe epidemic situation!