Everything that is currently doing the rounds about estimates of the coronavirus pandemic’s impacts is still derived from past global crises, and is not very specific or relates only to individual sectors. baking+biscuit
asked around and heard assessments of the crisis by suppliers to the industry, and how they are responding to it.
Signals from the baking sector differ as much as the structure of the businesses themselves. News reports day after day carried photos showing empty bread shelves. While trade suppliers activated all their spare production capacities, the situation among artisans, catering and chain stores looked quite different.
By using to-go concepts and deliveries, companies with a large proportion of catering were forced to attempt almost overnight to prevent the turnover collapse becoming life-threatening. Moreover, all the artisans suffered from consumers reducing their shopping trips and visiting as few businesses as possible, which tended to favor the food retail and prepacked goods on bread shelves.
“Please maintain social distancing” is the order of the day in shops. All those that have them use drive-in counters. In double-quick time, others open a pop-up drive-in at a former filling station. Opportunities to cushion losses are also available on the web. It’s the age of online stores and delivery services.
How bakery machine constructors are dealing with the crisis
How is the coronavirus crisis affecting your company?
The coronavirus crisis has also had its effects on the
international RONDO group. The health of our employees, customers and suppliers has top priority. That’s why we have implemented the respective national rules and regulations for the maintenance of distancing and for hygiene. We have changed over to home office working and videoconferencing insofar as this is possible. We ask customers and potential customers to contact us by telephone or E-mail, and our contact data have been uploaded to www.rondo-online.com.
Are there any impacts on supplies and installations?
Production is continuing in the usual way, both in our main factory in Burgdorf/Switzerland and in our production site in Schio/Italy. RONDO has a large vertical manufacturing range, and fabricates most of its components itself. Therefore we can continue production even in the current circumstances. Global travel restrictions are also impeding our service staff. Up to now, we have always been able to find a solution by coordinating with our customers.
How are coronavirus measures affecting service?
We have increased the number of staff operating our service hotline, and we offer customers comprehensive support via electronic channels. Many problems can be solved by using small videos or via remote maintenance. In Germany, our service technicians are currently also travelling to customers, if the latter agree to the deployment. RONDO has service technicians at its disposal in many countries, so service visits continue to be possible as long as there is no need to cross national borders.
What is the current situation for your
raw materials supplies?
RONDO has a very large vertical range of manufacture, and produces the great majority of the components for its machines and plants in its factories in Burgdorf/Schweiz and in Wasselonne/France. This is why we are not affected to such an extent that supply chains have failed due to the coronavirus crisis. At the moment, therefore, we have full delivery capability.
Have you announced short-time working/have you needed to lay off staff?
RONDO has not laid off any employees up to now, nor have we registered short-time working. Our factories in Switzerland and France are producing the usual volumes. The authorities have classified our factory in Italy as being system-relevant, and it is continuing production while observing the national regulations.
Do you have special offers for your customers in view of the coronavirus crisis?
We are currently offering our Compas 4.0 electronic roll-out machine at a particularly attractive price. With its simple operation and intelligent assistance systems, it keeps bakers’ heads free for important matters.
What are your plans for the period after coronavirus?
Many bakeries are suffering due to the collapse of out-of-house and on-the-go business. We very much hope that the situation will soon improve, and that the restrictions on commercial life will soon be largely removed again. In that case, the economic position will quickly recover again.
The article is part of an extended feature, which was originally published in [BBI 3 – 2020]. Read the full article in the magazine:
