More than a third of food and beverage companies surveyed between April 30 and May 4 — 39% — said they believe it will take seven months or longer to get their business back on track considering current COVID-19-related challenges, according to a May 6, 2020, Clear Seas Research report titled “Food & Beverage Manufacturing Industry, Industry Perspective on the Challenges of Today.” Clear Seas Research is part of Troy, Mich.-based BNP Media, the parent company of Dairy Foods. The report is the fourth installment in a series related to food and beverage processing operations during the coronavirus pandemic.

The percentage of respondents citing a seven-month or greater recovery timeframe is the same as in the third survey (fielded April 16-20). Still, other respondents were more optimistic — in both the third and the fourth surveys, 29% said they believed it would take just three months or less to get their business back on track, and 32% said they believed it would take four to six months.

In the fourth survey, 62% of respondents indicated that their active business was on schedule. That’s an improvement from the third survey, when 54% said it was. And 58% said that their planned business was on schedule, up from 52% in the third survey.

But the percentage of respondents indicating that new business development was on the rise actually fell slightly— 24% versus 25% in the third survey.

To see other findings from the fourth survey, download the report here.