Many of the students go on to work for Frito-Lay after the program. "Things like that program really helped us in the last year," Maxwell said. Mondel ēz reduced its SKUs by 25%, and Utz eliminated 85 of what it called "Foundation SKUs."Īfter the initial demand spike started to subside, some retailers and CPGs started to bring back SKUs.ĬPGs also rethought supply chains and labor, as companies facing staffing shortages had to make adjustments.įrito-Lay has a mentorship program, set up pre-pandemic, that pairs students receiving an associate's degree with mentors for job training related to industrial maintenance.
Several CPG brands deployed SKU cuts as they went head-to-head with elevated consumer demand. "COVID prompted a further conversation about what is really needed," Madrecki said. Rationalizing product mixes and trimming the long tail have always been a consideration for consumer-facing brands, but the focus was heightened during the pandemic, said Tom Madrecki, vice president of supply chain and logistics for the Consumer Brands Association. Mindset shifts weren't uncommon for supply chains during the pandemic.
FRITO LAY STRIKE FULL
And it's a change that means the full value chain must be primed for efficiency, from the inventory portfolio, to data-driven planning, and every link of the chain in between. "That's been, for us, a mindset change," she said. Maxwell called it "always everywhere." It means the brand and supply chain team embrace complexity to meet consumers where they are. Now Frito-Lay is taking an approach that deviates from supply chain's love of simplification.
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