Continuing our series on how Covid-19 is impacting luxury packaging suppliers, Quadpack ceo and co-founder Tim Eaves explains how his company is dealing with the situation. The supplier announced earlier this week the launch of a Covid-19 dashboard on its website, which shows the effect of the virus on its business operations in real-time.
What are your most pressing challenges today in the face of the current crisis?
Top of the list is, of course, the health and safety of our staff, especially in our factories. Remote working can affect business continuity, which puts a greater burden on our Business Technology department. It also means a level of collaboration not required before, with teams now working from home. There are delays to deal with in delivery times, both from our own factories, as well as receiving goods from our suppliers. Fortunately, these are much less than expected.
How has your production been impacted?
Special safety measures have had to be put in place, which have caused delays, but nothing significant. Our factories in Spain and Germany are operating at 86% capacity (as of March 26). It's impossible to predict how this will develop but, for the moment, production continues satisfactorily.
Editors note: on March 30 Quadpack announced the closure of its factories in Spain from March 30 - April 14 in response to the Spanish government's decision to temporarily shut down non-essential activities.
What strategies are you implementing to meet these challenges?
As mentioned above, first and foremost, strict safety measures, the majority of which are concentrated in our factories. Most office staff are now working from home. As a global business, our people are used to working together remotely, but they are doing it a lot more than usual.
In these uncertain times, it is vital to stay open and transparent so we are communicating our operational status in real time via a new Covid-19 dashboard on our website.
How have things changed vis-à-vis your clients?
We see three types of response from our clients: those who are putting orders on hold for now; those who prefer to stock goods to ensure continuity and those who continue business as usual. Orders are coming in, which shows that clients, especially those with strong online platforms, are still selling product.
Conversely, some filling factories are considering closure. Our sales and customer service teams are working hard to ensure that we provide flexible solutions to clients, while ensuring that our business continues to operate. We are communicating regularly with our client base aremaining as open and transparent as possible. After all, we are all in this together.
What difficulties have you encountered in your factories in France/Europe/US vs Asia?
Our Spanish and German factories are operating without significant delays. The same goes for our supply partners in Asia and the Americas. They remain fully operational, although there are delays in delivery of on average 15 days.
