Throughout the media there is a lot of talk about when and how New Zealand will move from our current level 4 lockdown to a level 3. The Government is regularly coming out with updates on what this will look like but there is a lot of information to sift through. Here at Foodcontrolplans.co.nz our primary concern is for the many food businesses that are currently not allowed to trade or are trading in a severely restricted way.
We do not yet know exactly when the Prime Minister will decide to move us into lesser restrictions and, of course, no one wants this to happen prematurely and further risk our health, lives and businesses. But we do need to start thinking about what level 3, or even level 2 will look like for our businesses and begin to prepare accordingly.
So brush off the cobwebs, turn off the Netflix and delve into what we can expect as a food business after the Covid-19 level 4 lockdown finally comes to an end.
Alert Level Three:
The most important thing to remember is that moving to a level 3 status does not mean the disease has been eradicated, or even contained. At this level significant clusters may still be occurring with community transmission still an issue. The point of level 3 is to prepare for us to move to a level 4. The main areas that impact on food businesses at the level 3 stage are:
- No face to face transactions are allowed. This means no bars, restaurants, cafes, malls or retail stores. However online shopping, food delivery, drive through takeaways and click and collect services will be allowed.
- Some schools will open for some students only. School lunch programmes are still some way off getting restarted. Many families will still be homeschooling their children.
- No mass gatherings are allowed. All public venues are still closed, this includes all food courts, theatres, stadiums and anywhere people gather in large crowds.
- Social distancing guidelines are still in place.
What does this mean for my food business?
If you are currently closed or working in a heavily diminished capacity you may be allowed to re-open. However, this will not likely be in the exact same way as before. Think about the following areas to help get your business ready to trade again.
- If you haven’t already, set up a contactless delivery or customer pickup service. This is going to be essential to trading during level 3.
- Look at how you are going to take payments from your customers without handling cash or cards. Think about whether an online card payment system such as Stripe or Paypal would work best, an electronic invoice or, in some cases, paywave on your eftpos machine (some banks are waiving the merchant fees for a period of time so check with your bank).
- Review your production processes to ensure employees can remain 2 metres apart at all times.
- Review your staff sickness procedures and your cleaning and sanitising program.
For more information on what you can put in place to protect you, your staff and your business from Covid 19 check out the following articles:
Alert Level Two
When the Government declares that our state of emergency with Covid-19 has been reduced to a level 2 it means the disease is now contained within New Zealand's borders. It does not necessarily mean that it has been contained elsewhere, there may still be a chance of it coming back into the country from outside.
At this point all food businesses are allowed to open again but the social distancing and increased hygiene rules are still in place.
What does this mean for my food business?
- There may be heavy restrictions on international travel. This will impact on your ability to import and export products, will limit international tourism and stop foreign workers from arriving from certain parts of the world.
- High risk staff will not be able to work. High risk staff include people who fall into one of the risk categories associated with age or pre-existing conditions or those employees who live with someone who is considered high risk.
Flexibility is key:
As we have seen around the world from places such as Singapore and China, this disease has a habit of coming back. We may sit at a level 3 for a while before moving to a level 2, or worse, we may end up moving between the different levels several times before things settle into normality. Some areas may move into a lower level before others depending on where the clusters are occurring. We need to remain flexible to allow for these changes without crumbling as a business.Think about stock levels, particularly of fresh produce. If you are to be closed again, probably without a huge amount of warning, you do not want to lose an unnecessary amount of food thus risking losing even more money. Think about how your longer lasting stock is stored. How long will it last? Are the temperatures in storage going to be adequate?
Look at what types of foods and/or services you will provide to the consumer post pandemic. While the general population work to regain their financial footing they may be spending less on the luxuries in life and you may have to be more flexible in what it is you are supplying and how you go about that.
Develop a comprehensive plan for how to move between the stages of emergency. Share this with your staff and get their input. Often your staff will know details about your business that you are not able to pay the attention to.
Continue to communicate with your customers and your community. This is a confusing time for everyone, and it is going to continue to be for a while yet. Letting everyone know what you are doing to mitigate risk and remain flexible in a volatile environment will help make your customers feel secure in their purchasing decisions.
It has been predicted that at least 20% of all food businesses in New Zealand won’t survive this pandemic. These predictions get as high as 50%. But with a bit of planning, creative thinking and a whole pile of collaboration and support we can give our own food businesses the best fighting chance we can.
If you would like to discuss anything from this article or just have a chat about your food business, click here and book in a 15 minute chat with me.
.svg)
