2020 was a big year for everyone. Locally, in South Australia we started the year with bushfires in all parts of South Australia, with the looming threat of COVID-19 hanging over everyone.
Then, as the pandemic started to reach all parts of the globe, everyone started to feel the pinch. Here at APF Cold Storage and Logistics, we have a huge outflow of products from storage. Over one week the inflow of products in to storage fell by 50% with the outflow doubling. This was the affect of supply chains shutting down, and consumers panic buying.
Then came the long shut downs. Admittedly the few months were very short in comparison to what we see overseas, but it was still hard going. In the lead up to the shut down, we did a months worth of work in one week. We then did the opposite over the shut down. This type of whiplash occurred a few more times in SA with similar affects.
APF Cold Storage and Logistics are lucky enough to be agile to adapt to most things. And while we didn’t thrive during these periods, we did survive. And to anyone running a business, that is a huge achievement and I congratulate you all for surviving.
Cold Storage in Adelaide, and Cold Storage in Australia has been interesting to watch over the last part of the year. As some countries come to terms with the pandemic (and some don’t) our economy has grown in the last quarter. We have started to see stock reserves build up, and the availability of stock in crease as well. These are all promising signs that things are getting back on track.
We finished the year with one of our busiest in the refrigerated logistics sector, in APF Cold Storage and Logistics history. I believe this would be the same for many organisations. It was great to finish with the optimism that business will continue to come back steadily from this once in a century occurrence. And I thank all our clients and staff for their support during these trying times.
Here’s to a “precedented” 2021.
-Tom
