In case there is anyone left in denial, this from one of my suppliers in Germany this morning (clothing industry).....
"We would be ready to arrange an AIR shipment even with lower quantity but for the time being we have to admit that the situation locally is so serious that we are far beyond any normal business.
Germany and or closest European neighbours are facing the most dramatic situation in economic, public and private life since second World War.
Even companies like VW, SIEMENS, LUFTHANSA etc. close their production plants, offices etc. completely.
XXXXX will close all productions plants – xxxxxx, Romania and India – from coming Monday. All employees of administration in xxxxxxx will be forced to work under short-time conditions, which means maximum 60% of the individual working time is used.
Employees in production will be at home completely, in logistic only the minimum of 5 people where normally about 40 colleagues are working.
Therefore please understand that we cannot give any forecast if / how / when a dispatch can / will be done. We try our utmost to serve all our markets equally but have strict instructions and schedules what has to be handled / settled when.
Sorry for not being able to give a more concrete reply, things are changing not daily but by the hour."
Another XXXXXX colleague has advised the following…
"This Corona disease is spreading now. The number of infected people is still low in Germany and thanks god, patients recover also soon. Nevertheless, the German government forced all retail stores, beside grocery business to shut down the doors to reduce expanding the disease – also borders within the EU has been closed already. Consequently, there is no consumer industry working and we had to take measurements, accordingly. Beginning of next week, we will close the factories and send people home until mid of April. It´s a hard measurement, but necessary to keep the brand XXXXX running for the future. This week we have finalized all goods of Spring/Summer and after Easter break, we will continue with the production of Winter 2020, means we probably can keep all delivery dates for 2020.
XXXXX has a good foundation, a very strong infrastructure and offers a very flexible service of NOS goods. By passing this crisis, the market environment will look different. Retailers, competitors, suppliers, many stakeholders in this business will suffer a lot – XXXXXX will survive, will come back stronger on the long term and we will follow up business together with you as soon as possible to come back to normal operation mode.
Until then we thank you for your understanding and patience about those measurements, we have to take right now.
All the best to you, your families and you colleagues!
Stay healthy, take care!"