Vertical Integration activities often go through cycles; eg newspapers sprint to buy wood harvesting rights; streaming giants all bid for content or leap into producing content.
Attention is often on firms that don’t deleverage at the right time (eg Blockbuster held onto downstream retail locations far too long) but sometimes the news highlights the risk of a LACK of integration eg when Auto makers’ single source of airbags, or catalytic converters, is lost after a tsunami.
Covid shortages are now constraining the supply to chain restaurants; expect the QSR industry to rethink their logistics model, and invest to better assure control of supplies.