How Eagle is helping restaurants cope with a new gut punch: Shortages.

Restaurants in Puerto Rico have been hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis. With travel restrictions and stringent limits on inside dining, their sales plummeted. Many adapted by ramping up pickup and delivery operations. However, the predicament was much tougher for hotel restaurants, which usually cannot replace lost dine-in revenue with to-go orders. 

On a brighter side, Puerto Rico’s economy is now benefiting from stimulus checks, a tourism recovery, and rising discretionary income. For stand-alone restaurants, drive-through and delivery sales have skyrocketed.

But the punches keep coming. A new challenge has emerged for all restaurants:  significant shortages of dry and refrigerated goods.

The new norm: More shipments. Less quantity.

Dealing with the shortages has greatly complicated supply chain logistics. At Eagle Logistics, we’re managing through these issues every day. We’re making every effort to ensure that our customers get the supplies they need to operate.

Restaurants and hotels have to order farther in advance, yet they often see their order quantities cut by half or more. Consequently, buyers in Puerto Rico and their supply chain partners are scrambling to arrange more frequent deliveries and alternative supply sources. 

Shippers can’t fulfill as many full container loads, so their customers have to settle for any offer of less-than-container load shipments. This means buyers often are relying on Eagle to arrange two, three or more shipments for orders that previously were placed only once.

With the need for more shipments from more locations, scheduling deliveries of food and dry goods is now much more complex. Advanced forecasting and close coordination among buyers, shippers, and Puerto Rican supply chain partners is crucial. 

Why partner with Eagle?

Shortages threaten to impair sales, so restaurants are yearning for help. To get more consistent shipments, our distribution partners are referring restaurant suppliers to Eagle Logistics. With our extensive experience in food-related shipments to Puerto Rico—plus plenty of planning and persistence—we’re helping restaurants successfully deal with the ongoing shortages. 

In addition, Eagle has an advantage few others can offer: A dedicated warehouse in Jacksonville, Florida that specializes in consolidating LCL loads for our customers in Puerto Rico.

Whether you manage a restaurant or cargo in a totally different industry, call Eagle. We’re the partner you can trust to get the freight you need to Puerto Rico.