Neal Brothers Foods Inc., based in Richmond Hill north of Toronto, said snack shipments to Loblaw increased about 50 per cent in February compared to the same time last year. The sudden increase in sales volumes would have been even higher, but the company wasn’t able to fully meet Loblaw’s needs following its break with one of the biggest snack manufacturers in the world, co-founder Peter Neal said.
After the Frito-Lay decision, Loblaw requested an “abnormally” large order volume from Neal Brothers, and the company scrambled to ramp up production and find more trucking capacity, Neal said. The chip company was only able to fill 40 per cent of the initial order and is currently working on filling the rest, he said., Neal said the extra orders sent his team into “emergency” mode, adding that his team worked 60 hours last week to respond “to a crisis in the snack section of a major grocer.
Industry insiders say the standoff between Frito-Lay and Loblaw is representative of broader tensions in the Canadian food business, as grocers and suppliers grapple with rising inflation across the supply chain.