As part of our series on how luxury packaging suppliers are impacted by the coronavirus, earlier this week we spoke with Carmen Yago, marketing director at Spanish rigid box specialist Salinas.
What are your most pressing challenges today in the face of the current crisis?
Our main concern is the safety of our employees; we’ve implemented a plan to bring our way of working in line with the safety standards set by the WHO and our government: social distancing, home office when possible, daily communication with all of our workers. We’ve set up a special committee to deal with all these issues.
We are operating in an uncertain climate, so for now the most important thing is to collaborate with our customers by being even more flexible and responsive.
Managing this level of uncertainty is now more important than ever. Our strategy for now is daily analysis, daily communication and contemplating various different outcomes.
How has your production been impacted?
There are still few repercussions as the majority of our customers remain active—no cancellations as of yet (March 23). Although we have a lot of backlog orders, we are working to prioritize and reschedule deliveries. It is impossible to know what will happen in the next few weeks, but we’re not excluding the possibility of closing the factory temporarily.
While at this point we can’t calculate the consequences on our production, this crisis will leave a mark on our P&L so we’re working to limit that impact as much we possibly can. The best thing we can do is to analyze the situation and prepare for the different scenarios.
How are your clients working with their suppliers today?
The uncertainty for our customers is enormous too. Some are in sectors and markets that are very seasonal, such as those in the fashion industry, where the situation is more difficult than those in other sectors such as perfumery, cosmetics or beverages. There is a lot of communication going on with our clients and we’re trying to adapt and readjust to their needs. Teaming up is the only thing that will save us from this silent war.
