Julie Palmer, Nazar Soofi and David Mathieson explore the financial, operational and energy challenges facing the F&B supply chain

Writing for Foodbev, Julie Palmer from Restructuring, David Matheison from Funding and Insurance and Nazar Soofi from Projects and Developments, discussed the current conditions in the food and beverage (F&B) sector and how focusing on energy security could support with cost saving measures.

Financial and operational resilience for leaders across the F&B supply chain has been a challenge to maintain in recent years and could become even more difficult in the future. 

There were already 463 liquidations in 2025 among F&B companies and Q4 2025 ‘Red Flag Alert’ data registered 6,705 “Food and Beverages” companies experiencing ‘significant’ financial distress, suggesting more could be on the way.

Julie Palmer, Managing Partner at BTG, said:

“We can already see that large business groups appear to have the means to weather rising costs and continue growing, albeit at a slower rate through innovation, investment, operational resilience, and stealing market share. The story is different for SMEs and independent companies. With less cash and fewer assets, they often cannot afford to invest in efficiency, absorb rising employment and operation costs and diversify ranges to meet changing demands.

“Despite this, if challenging market conditions continue, it will not just be the smaller distressed businesses being pushed towards closure. Larger businesses across the F&B supply chain may be forced to make decisions to save on costs as they too feel the pinch, as has been seen from a number of breweries and distilleries.

“For any business, the first sign of financial distress should be the point where advice is sought. Working with advisors, leaders can evaluate businesses and find ways to streamline operations, save money, meet changing demands and diversify in order rebuild a strong platform on which to grow.”

The article in FoodBev also highlighted how the rise in fuel prices could accelerate appetite for energy generation.

Analysis of the Renewable Energy Planning Database found planning permission was granted for 794 solar projects in 2025, a rise from 71 in 2019. There were also 475 battery projects approved in 2025, the highest in the last five years, compared to 35 in 2019.

Nazar Soofi, Head of Renewables at BTG Eddisons, said:

“These peaks for solar PV and battery not only highlight the easing of planning barriers for businesses and landlords. It could also show the growing focus on these installations as a means of providing cost effective and reliable energy to a site. 

“An estate review can quickly uncover the opportunities for solar PV installations, particularly rooftop and car park solar installations for large F&B manufacturing sites. This includes suitable areas for battery installations to accompany them. Specialist real estate advisors and surveyors in the sector often have the capability in the team to design, cost and project manage installations, including analysis of current energy spend, potential savings, and payback periods for the site, to provide the best solution.”

David Mathieson, Managing Director of Funding and Insurance at BTG, said:

“With F&B companies seeing margins squeezed further than ever, the discussion then falls onto the capex barrier associated with designing and installing a system, including any disruption or downtime associated. Fortunately, as lenders have become more accustomed to financing solar projects, there is more credit available for companies to draw from.

“Often these costs can be overcome or mitigated by building costs into the overall finance package, a model that many experienced sector lenders will help do. Solar installations represent a safe investment in the eyes of lenders because even with repayments on finance, solar cuts costs in the long-term for a business. In effect, the impact of implementing solar makes the business more stable at a time when energy is one of the biggest and most unpredictable costs of running a business, with prices high and fluctuating.”