COVID-19 Impact on Pharmaceutical Packaging in Chemicals and Materials Industry

COVID-19 Impact on Ice Maker in FMCG Industry

  • FMCG
  • Dec 22, 2021

COVID-19 Impact on Ice Maker in FMCG Industry

COVID-19 OVERVIEW

The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the whole planet with its major impacts on the economy and businesses across the globe. The COVID-19 spread worldwide in unprecedented ways due to its high infectious and contagious nature and lack of availability of its vaccine. As a result, the greatest medical challenge in the 21st century is yet to be faced by physicians worldwide. Though the emergence of the virus can be traced back to Asia, many European countries along with the U.S. have been struck massively by the pandemic. The virus has spread across all regions ranging from North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa up to South America. The COVID-19 has been declared as a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO) due to its increased spread across the globe. After the declaration of the pandemic, various countries announced the complete lockdown such as India, China, and other Asian countries to decrease its spread. According to the situation report of 27th October 2021 by WHO stated 244.3 million cases of the corona have been reported globally and 4.9 million patients are dead due to the coronavirus. On a slightly positive note, a total of 6.7 billion vaccine doses have been administered as well.

COVID-19 IMPACT ON ICE MAKER MACHINES

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the global ice maker market significantly. The persistence of COVID-19 for a longer period disrupted the supply chain. It became difficult to supply the raw material to the manufacturers, which halted the manufacturing process. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the end-users of ice makers such as the food and beverage industry, healthcare industry, construction industry, and others faced a decline in the market due to the movement restriction, de-globalization, loss of income, restriction on import and export of products, restriction in the supply of raw materials, among others. All these factors impacted the market growth negatively. The COVID-19 has led to the lockdown worldwide, impacting the ice maker market tremendously as it leads to lack of availability of raw material, labor shortage, shipping problems, highly inflated prices, and others. Additionally, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the demand for ice in the meat packaging industry, hospitality, and restaurant industry declined due to movement restrictions. However, the demand for ice makers is expected to increase drastically after the COVID-19 with the steady reopening of hotels, bars, restaurants, lounges, and others. The growing demand for ice makers for residential, commercial, and industrial purposes may boost the growth of the market. However, the inflated prices of ice makers make it hard to afford for the consumers in developing countries and middle-class consumers as well as small business owners, which is expected to hamper the market's growth.

AFTERMATH OF COVID-19

Post the pandemic, the demand for ice makers would be increasing as there won't be any more restrictions on movement, and the procurement of raw material would be easy. Additionally, the market is expected to grow after COVID-19 with the gradual reopening of restaurants, lounges, cafes, and others. The manufacturers could easily provide ice makers to the end-users such as the food retail industry, healthcare industry, construction industry, and other industries. In addition, after the lift of lockdown, the work in the construction industry and food & beverages industry will resume, which eventually increase the demand for ice and ice maker. Hence, these factors will propel the growth of the ice maker market globally after the post-pandemic era.

STRATEGIC DECISIONS FOR MANUFACTURERS AFTER COVID-19 TO GAIN COMPETITIVE MARKET SHARE

The rising demand for ice makers in the food retail industry has led the manufacturers to involve in different developments such as acquisition, partnership, and others to gain competitive market share. Additionally, manufacturers are partnering with other companies to offer new technologies to produce ice products and to enhance the efficiency of ice makers. All these strategies opted by manufacturers help to gain more market share in the market.

For instance,

  • In April 2021, Ali Group Worldwide acquired Kold Draft International, a manufacturer of ice machines that makes square cubes by using upside down, horizontal evaporator system
  • In December 2020, Hoshizaki America, Inc. partnered with Fastcomm to offer remote monitoring solution for Hoshizaki KM cuber ice machines, the new technology offers machine health check status as well as the status of ice making and hence increasing the efficiency

Thus, the increasing number of acquisitions, partnerships, launches by manufacturers to fulfill the growing demand of ice makers in various industries such as the food retail industry, healthcare, construction, and others, is expected to boost the demand of the market as well as help the manufacturers in gaining more market share.

IMPACT ON DEMAND AND SUPPLY CHAIN

The demand and supply for ice makers were initially affected during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic because of lockdown as there was a halt on work in various industries such as construction, meat packaging, food & beverage industry, and others. The virus outbreak affected the meat packaging industry operations and hampered the demand for ice. Similarly, the construction sites, restaurant industry, the hospitality industry were shut which affected the market revenue. In addition, due to restrictions on movement, there was a halt on the manufacturing process of ice makers as COVID-19 led to a loss of labor, lack of availability of raw material, and others. But after the lockdown was lifted, the demand for ice maker products increased due to the reopening of the food retail industry and other end-users such as restaurants, cafes, lounges, bars. Moreover, the demand for ice is increasing in the healthcare industry to store organs. The rising demand is enabling manufacturers to constantly engage in the development of ice makers such as new product launches, partnerships, acquisitions, and others in the market even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For instance,

  • In October 2021, ITV ICE MAKERS S.L. participated in the HOST 2021 fair in Milan, regarding hospitality equipment. This participation helped the company to present the latest developments in the ice machines in the market and to grab the attention of the consumers
  • In 2021 June, according to Total Food Service, Hoshizaki America, Inc. launched Sphere Undercounter Ice Machine in the U.S. market for bar owners, restaurants, and hotels to produce clean and clear ice balls for cocktail presentation and another purpose
  • In November 2020, Howe Corporation launched a new CO2 (R744) recirculated ice system to install in the supermarket
  • In October 2020, Quench has introduced a new product named Quench 960 in the U.S. and Canada market, it’s high capacity water and ice dispenser which produces chewable nugget ice and hot drinking water

The increase in the number of launches to fulfill the demand of end-users of ice makers even during the pandemic is expected to boost the market’s growth. However, the product's high prices are major restraining factors for the global ice maker market.

IMPACT ON PRICE

The high prices associated with the ice maker and its continuous development are restricting the growth of the market. During the COVID-19, the supply chain of ice makers was affected, which directly impacted the demand for ice makers, but after the pandemic was over, there was a sudden surge in demand for ice makers as there was reopening of construction sites, restaurants, cafes, bars, food retail industry and others which require ice maker. Hence, with surging demand, the price of ice makers has been increased, which may impact the growth of the market in the coming years. The rising demand for ice makers after the pandemic for various end-use has increased the prices of ice makers.

CONCLUSION

COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost all industries, including the ice maker, across the world. Also, the outbreak has affected the economy on a global level. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the lockdown worldwide, impacting the demand and supply of ice makers. But after the lift of the lockdown, the demand for ice makers has suddenly increased as the demand for ice increased in restaurants, bars, restaurants, cafes, the food retail industry, the construction industry, and others.

The increased demand for an ice maker for commercial, residential, and industrial purposes, coupled with the rising adoption of ice makers to store perishable items, boosts the market's growth. However, with the rise in demand, the prices of ice makers are also increasing, which may hamper the market's growth as it makes it hard to afford high-priced products in developing countries.