Responding efficiently in the face of disaster is no small challenge to any manufacturer. Consider how two firms in the Southeast—one an assembler and packager of shelf-stable ready-to-eat meal kits and the other a converter of folding cartons—rose to the occasion when disaster struck.
For GA Food Services of St. Petersburg, FL, the disaster in question was named Katrina. In the hurricane’s wake, demand for GA’s emergency meals went through the roof. The firm had already more than doubled its production capacity to fulfill several Katrina-related contracts when emergency management officials responsible for feeding thousands of relief workers asked the firm to ramp up another 400% in just three days.
