The food service industry will continue to rebound slowly, with a full recovery expected to take several years to climb back up to pre-COVID-19 levels, predicts Colliers International. Like other business-to-business providers affected by the shutdowns, many food service distributors have expanded their product offerings into the retail space. With a shift in consumer spending, the grocery and ecommerce supply chain struggled to keep up with the increased demand. The void provided flexible food service distributors with an opportunity to quickly pivot their product offerings from food service to food retail and give a much-needed boost to supply in the retail sector.

Learning from their early pandemic shortfalls, grocers have begun to replace their skinny inventory and just-in-time delivery models with broader inventories to handle demand spikes. Additionally, retailers have forced penalties/fees back up the supply chain for empty shelves — from the retailer to third-party