TITLE:
Business Strategies Employed by Food Service Industries to Survive the Impact of COVID-19
AUTHORS:
Renato M. Samonte Jr., Ali G. Mamaclay, Manuel P. Castillo
KEYWORDS:
Cash Flows, Food Service Industries, Labor Shortage, Raw Materials Shortage
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.10 No.5,
September
16,
2022
ABSTRACT: This study explored and described the business
strategies of food service industries in Cabanatuan City in the New Normal. The
descriptive research design was used in the study. Researcher-made questionnaire
was employed to elicit information from 15 food service industries purposively
chosen. Analysis of the result indicates that most of the food service industry
was a restaurant with the corporation as business owners and was operated over
the years. As to the number of employees, they had small number of regular
employees and a larger number of casual and contractual employees due to
restructuring and transforming their
workplaces brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the respondents
were impacted by the pandemic in terms of the five indicators used in the
study. The finance and cash flows were greatly affected due to a profit decline. The shortage of raw materials
due to transportation-related problems impacted their production of
products needed by the customers. Likewise, they reduced the employee size due
to a loss in sales and profits. Similarly, they innovated their products based on the customers’ needs using local materials.
Meanwhile, the respondent’s food service industry can utilize business
strategies suited for their operations. On the marketing side, they increased
their marketing efforts with social media platforms to reach out to customers
and increase online sales. On the other hand, they reassure strict safety and
sanitation following existing safety protocols of IATF. Likewise, they strictly
observed social distancing at work and ensured reduced operating costs to
regain their Business from financial loss. Finally, they responded that the
strategies used were helpful in their overall business operations. And as to
the outcome of actions and strategies employed, the food service industry was
able to catch up with their revenues, raw materials, and total operating costs
and sales by more than 10 percent. The current study is limited to the fact
that it only used a systematic assessment of food service industry strategies.
Future research should focus on the techniques used by food service companies
to combat COVID-19 from various perspectives and utilize various methods. This
research enlightens researchers on the strategies used by the food service
industry and points the way for future research. The study has identified the
areas where the researcher is focusing efforts and those that have received less
attention. It also demonstrates the dominating approaches and gaps that future
researchers must fill. This paper achieved the main purpose of studying the
business strategies employed by food service industries to survive the impact
of COVID-19.