*3.2. Data Analysis*

The research team provides an analysis of the overall response prior to sectional, theme, and individual questions analysis. The FB sector covers all nine provinces in SA, which comprises Small, Medium, and Micro enterprises (SMME) and comprises various sectors. An initial analysis is conducted, see Table 3.

The company distribution provides for data on representation and where necessary is used in the sectional, themed, and individual analysis.


**Table 3.** Provincial/Category/Company size classification.

3.2.1. Overall Analysis of Impact of COVID-19 on Food and Beverage Manufacturing Sector Businesses

A key screening question reveals that 12 of the 106 companies could close in the next 12 months. Table 4 below provides data relating to size of companies. It is apparent that smaller companies are being impacted with no large companies envisaging closure. The data on category of companies is not clear but of these 12 companies, 6 are from the "meat" category (a total of 16 meat companies responded). The exact driver for such a large representation in the meat category is beyond this study analysis.


**Table 4.** Business closure timelines.

The research team sought to reinforce data beyond the current perspective with a question on forecasting. *At present, the long-term impacts of COVID-19 are uncertain, but the ramification will continue to be felt even after the spread of the virus is contained. What will be the impact for the future?*

With 30% of the companies electing not to answer, five percent felt there would be no impact in the future while the remaining 65% of the companies are envisaging future impacts.

The research now focuses on the operational impact of COVID-19 on Food and Beverage Manufacturing companies. Various literature sources provide inputs from a complete shutdown of business, adjusting work hours, impacts on sales and orders, business credit, reduced/increases in selected product lines, employee wellness, and administrative challenges. These are incorporated into a business impact question with a Low/Medium/High impact as feedback from companies. The data (Table 5) clearly indicate that there has been a high impact on small and micro enterprises in all categories. Large and medium companies have experienced low impacts.


**Table 5.** Analysis of COVID-19 impacts on business operations.


The data on complete shutdown of business indicates a higher impact on small and micro businesses with large and medium experiencing at least 20% of businesses with a high impact. Essentially 1 in 5 small/micro businesses have been physically closed with a high impact. The adjustment of work hours has had a high impact on small and micro with a low impact on large business. Order cancellations are having a high impact on small business with very little impact on medium to large business. A decrease in sales impacts all but large businesses. Reduced logistics services is a high impact challenge across all sizes of business. Finance and line of credit have been used by medium/small/micro businesses and has a high impact. Small businesses indicate an increase in administrative bottleneck, this cannot be internal. It may be external with unemployment insurance and other government dependent activity.
