As you are all aware, these are difficult and testing times. With lockdowns being put in place across the globe, COVID-19 is causing significant disruption to our day-to-day lives, including how we go about our personal interactions and how we work together as team. It’s impacting throughout our supply chain, from our growers right through to consumer purchasing decisions. It’s a significant challenge and yet, we are still supplying our fresh produce to retailer shelves, at a time when healthy, nutritious food is ever more important.

For this, I want to take a moment to thank every one of you, including all our suppliers, partners and BerryWorld employees, for working tirelessly together, to ensure our continued supply. As I am sure everybody recognises, these are far from normal working conditions and everyone is collaborating to find a way through this crisis.

The health and well-being of our employees and all our stakeholders is at the top of BerryWorld’s Senior Leadership Team’s agenda. Our COVID-19 Committee are holding daily, virtual meetings due to the continually evolving situation, ensuring that we are doing everything we can to prioritise the safety of our people and those we work with. The situation is being continuously reviewed to ensure health and well-being is prioritised first and foremost.

We are only part of the supply chain, however. Growers and packhouses are courageously enduring this pandemic worldwide, to continue supplying us with fresh produce. Labour is increasingly becoming a major challenge, specifically for businesses where foreign workers are highly depended upon. Unparalleled effort is now being put into simply re-stocking shelves due to the amount of disruption the virus has caused to shopping habits. We are working closely with our suppliers, partners and customers, to simplify operations as much as possible, in a manner which best supports them.

These are exceptional and unsettling times for everyone and what will happen in the next few months is uncertain. Remaining flexible and collaborative to respond to this uncertainty will be key and I have been so pleased to see how our teams across the supply chain have come together. It’s at times like these when our values become especially important. It is these values and the hard work and resilience of you all that gives me confidence that we will cope with the challenges that lie ahead.

Please take care of yourselves and your families. Thank you again for all your hard work and commitment.

Best wishes,

Adam