As part of our coverage on how luxury packaging suppliers are faring in the current crisis, textile specialist Oriol & Fontanel managing director Laurent Gery talks about how his company is facing up to today's challenges.
What are your most pressing challenges today in the face of the crisis?
First off, ensuring production with our employees on a voluntary basis; ensuring deliveries to our customers in the medical and food industries as a priority as well as to our clients in the luxury-goods sector, and being sure that we can pay our employees' salaries.
How has your production been impacted?
We are currently (March 24th) seeing a 30% drop in turnover for this month and expect a greater decrease from April onwards. We believe that the whole month of April will be impacted as well as part of May.
What strategies are you putting into place?
Oriol & Fontanel has maintained 45% of its French staff. Each employee has access to hand sanitizer and gel and we have no more than one person per 100m² so there is no contact between employees. Meals are taken separately in shifts.
How are your clients working with their suppliers today?
We are grateful to the luxury industry, which is playing by the rules with regard to their suppliers left on deck. This will help us to pay the salaries of all our employees in the coming months.
How is production faring in France versus the rest of Europe and Asia?
Our sites in Asia and Romania have recovered 100% and we’ve not seen any decline in activity there. Our French sites are running at 55% on a voluntary basis with even supervisory staff involved in the production and dispatch of priority orders.
