If you thought that 2021 was full of surprises, better hold on to your hats during the year ahead, writes Nick Peksa. An abridged version of this article first appeared in ESM Issue 1 2022.
For retailers and consumers, 2021 was a challenging year. Global weather patterns were erratic, resulting in quality issues and reduced harvests, labour shortages affected several tertiary industries, and increases in energy prices affected everyone.
All these issues were further exacerbated by unpredictable demand, as the pandemic receded, global economies snapped back into action, and consumer demand swelled and outstripped the ability of the supply chain to keep pace (effectively, decades of growth were packed into an 18-month period).
