Organic, non-GMO Food and Produce Delivered - Azure Standard
Press Release: Azure Standard Adjusts to Rapid Growth Amid Supply Chain Challenges
By
Azure Team | October 26, 2021
Q & A reveals aggressive moves to avoid discontinuity
DUFUR, OR, [10/26/2021] – Azure Standard founder and CEO, David Stelzer
released a Q & A statement today updating customers and vendors on the
company’s rapid growth and ongoing adjustments in light of national
supply chain shortages currently occurring across several market
segments.
“Azure is growing at an unprecedented rate, even in light of the supply
challenges across the country. We’re working hard to be worthy of the
trust of our community and realize people want a reliable source for
healthful food and earth-friendly products. We hope to be a calming
presence in the marketplace right now and want our community to know
we are doing our best to meet the challenges that come with rapid growth
as well as the ongoing supply chain issues faced across the country,” he
said.
Q: How has Azure Standard been affected by the ongoing supply
disruptions?
“We have not been immune to the disruptions. We’ve experienced labor
shortages, product shortages and some price increases within our
offerings in recent weeks. That said, we expect these to be temporary in
most cases. In the meantime, we’re finding ways to minimize how this
affects our customers,” Stelzer noted.
Q: Can you give specific examples of how this might affect your
customers?
“Customers may see strange packaging here and there, like milk jugs
instead of gallon bottles for things like oils and vinegars. Depending on the
product, labels may be different, as label stock is hard to find right now.
We’re doing this so that products remain available. For some items, a
customer may receive plastic packaging instead of paper. As for delivery
challenges, some areas of the country may experience shipping and
delivery delays and disruptions due to labor shortage and the significant
increase in demand.”
He added, “There will be sporadic outages of products due to trucking
delays and clogged shipping lanes at the ports. For example, our
chocolate that comes from Peru is affected, taking 4 weeks longer than
usual due to port delays. Customers should expect short lapses, due to
this dynamic. There will also be a few things to run out early for seasonal
harvests as well. This is anticipated throughout the course of the next year.
Customers can monitor this on our website via specific product pages.”
Q: Why is Azure Standard growing while other parts of the
marketplace are struggling to survive?
“There’s many reasons. We anticipated some of the current challenges and
have been taking steps to be prepared. Also, a lot of it boils down to trust
and dependability. People sense that Azure Standard cares about them –
and we do. We’ve always done things a little differently. And so, we’ve
done our best to be transparent with challenges we face. People have
responded and are spreading the word.”
Q: How are these supply chain challenges causing Azure to adjust its
business model?
“It’s creating some challenges for sure. The most obvious changes will
happen as we’re expanding our own Azure-owned brands. This will allow
us more control over a wider product offering and ultimately facilitate more
stock,” he noted.
He added, “We’re aggressively hiring in every business area right now.
This will help meet the increasing demand. Until we get more persons in
place, the temporary lack of labor as well as limited availability of
packaging materials mean we are not able to package fast enough to keep
up with growing demand. We expect this to be temporary. I want to assure
our community we’re working nonstop to overcome these type of
bottlenecks as we experience them.”
Q: Seems like a lot of companies have been caught off guard
regarding these shortages. Is this true of Azure?
“No. We saw these types of challenges early-on. Months ago, we began to
taking steps in the interests of our customers. At the time, the western
U.S. was facing an ongoing drought and issues related to COVID-19 were
affecting the labor force and product availability. Thankfully, this planning
and our strong vendor and team relations have helped us avoid dramatic
disruptions. We have a strong team who are highly committed to our
customers, who are doing what it takes within our limits. We’ll continue, as
we have for months now, to take needed steps and creative solutions
which will help our customers avoid or at least minimally experience the
supply chain problems everyone’s having.”