• The survey found that the pandemic is affecting packaging businesses in several ways.
    The survey found that the pandemic is affecting packaging businesses in several ways.
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Businesses around the world are gearing up to confront the period of uncertainty and difficulty that the coronavirus pandemic has brought.

In response to the pandemic, Pact Group has implemented screening protocols and questionnaires for all personnel and visitors entering company facilities. In a letter to customers, Pact Group managing director and group CEO Sanjay Dayal said the company would also introduce temperature testing of all personnel entering company facilities.

“We have been testing and revising all of our business contingency plans, by site and by product, to ensure that in the event there is a site closure, the disruption to any of our customers is minimised to the fullest extent possible,” Dayal wrote.

“As a supplier of essential goods and services for a number of critical industries, we are liaising with government to ensure that we remain fully operational during this difficult period.”

Dayal said the parts of the business involved in the supply of hygiene and cleaning products and goods and services to the grocery market had been responding to heightened demand.

“This has required us to divert some of our resources to these areas to ensure we are meeting the expectations of the community and the government,” he wrote.

As a result of this, Dayal wrote that there may be “impact to delivery times”.

The CEO’s letter noted that there had been no reported cases of Covid-19 at the company, as of 23 March.

Pact Group has also switched some of its production capacity to making hand sanitiser, in repsonse to an uptick in demand for the product.

Food & Drink Business

Mars Australia & New Zealand has appointed Karim Lokhandwala as its new chief customer officer of Petcare, commencing 1 June. The news comes as applications open for the company’s Next Generation Pet Food Program with Big Idea Ventures – now in its third year.

Simson's Pantry received the Best NPD Award for its High Protein Souvlaki, which delivers 10g of protein per serve while still maintaining the texture, flexibility and versatility consumers expect. By combining functional nutrition with everyday usability, the company has successfully introduced a new point of differentiation within the Australian flatbread category.

Freshwater Bev Tech has received this year's Gamechanger Award for its patent-pending unpasteurised production process, developed specifically to preserve bio-active compounds in the company's functional beverage brand, SUMMi Soda.