Popular snack producer warns of possible cookie shortage ahead of holidays
FILE - The Campbell Soup Co. brand Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies are seen on a supermarket shelf.
Pepperidge Farm, which operates under the Campbell’s Soup Company, has warned it may experience a shortage of some of their popular cookie items due to the ongoing pandemic.
In an emailed statement to FOX TV Stations, the company has been dealing with “supply challenges due to the sustained demand and labor impacted by COVID-19.”
“Demand for our cookies has been high for months now and we’re baking around the clock,” according to the statement. “We have recently experienced supply challenges due to the sustained demand and labor impacted by COVID-19. This is not affecting all cookies, just a small subset that are unique, proprietary and, as a result, cookies only we can make. You may be seeing less of those on the shelves, but rest assured there will be plenty of Pepperidge Farm cookies to go around.”
The shortage included some of Pepperidge Farm’s more popular cookie items like Milano and Chessman.
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Campbell’s faces additional hurdles in meeting the skyrocketing demand because it does not use third-party manufacturers for Pepperidge Farms cookies — due to the brand’s unique shapes and designs — making it harder for the company to ramp up production to meet increased demand, according to Bloomberg.
Additionally, according to data collected by Top Data, the demand for cookies amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has gone up 25%., with 1 in 5 Americans eating more than 3 cookies a day.
This is not the first pandemic-induced shortage Campbell’s has had to face this year. In April, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers experienced a 6.1 percent drop in demand, according to IRI Pantry Audit data that monitored U.S. dollar consumption trends.
The slight dip was due to “short-term supply challenges,” which ultimately resulted from higher than normal demand, the report stated.
And again, in September, the company saw “unprecedented demand” for products in the three months through June as customers loaded up on food and beverages while sheltering at home.
The Associated Press and FOX Business contributed to this report.