|
In the conference call following the release of Q4 and FY2020 results, Jim Snee, Chairman, president and CEO of Hormel Foods predicted a return to dining-out in 2021. This opinion is obviously dependent on effective control of COVID-19. His optimism is based on deployment of effective vaccines that should be available during the first quarter of 2021. Whether a sufficient proportion of our population will be immunized as a matter for conjecture. Currently there is a disinclination among certain demographics to receive the vaccine and there  are innumerable challenges to distributing and administering vaccines requiring a cold chain. Epidemiologists consider that at least 60 percent of the population of the U.S. will have to be immune to COVID-19 to establish a level of herd immunity sufficient to suppress, but not necessary eliminate the disease.
|
Jim Snee CEO Hormel Foods |
|
Tempering optimism with reality, Snee anticipates a delay in attaining pre-COVID levels of food service activity. He envisages a gradual transition from home consumption to eating out. Companies committed to food service such as Sysco, U.S. Foods, McLane, Performance, Compass Group, Sodexo and other distributors will be dependent on restoration of travel and in addition, resumption of normal activities by schools and universities.
Take-out, home delivery and pick-up have sustained the QSR segment and supported many casual dining chains during the COVID period, although volume and hence profit throughout the food service sector is far lower than in corresponding quarters of 2019.
|