Staff expansions and production efficiencies are bright spots in an industry feeling the effects of economic forces beyond its control.
The impact of macro-trends can be seen in the new product formulations and anticipated capital expenditures of food companies. Participants in this year’s State of Food Manufacturing survey indicate spending will be flat this year for production, packaging and process-control equipment, and a small downturn in budgets for automation hardware and software is likely-and that was two months before political brinkmanship took the federal government to the edge of default. “People have to have a job to buy things,” one survey respondent correctly observes, and the expectation is increasing that they will use the available dollars to buy healthier, less indulgent foods.