Specialty Fabrics Review October 2020 - 36

SURVIVING A

PANDEMIC 101
Economists and business professors will study and teach the
"lessons learned" from this pandemic for years to come-and
it's likely that many lessons have yet to emerge. Here are a few
early lessons from leaders across the specialty fabrics industry.

1. Don't wait for the perfect opportunity.
"Get started in new markets and keep learning from your
customers. They will help you with the perfecting piece," says
Traci Evling, managing director, JTE Machines LLC. "Use
forums and organizations to gain understanding about the new
market dynamics."

2. Trust your employees.
"For the most part, [our associates] who could work from
home did a great job and were accountable for their workload,"
says Jennifer Fennell, director of procurement, Polo Custom
Products. "We also learned the scenario would have been much
worse if not for some of the technology advancements we made
a priority over the recent years."

3. Be ready to adapt rapidly to a changing market.
"For our leadership group here, we learned we could come
together in a moment of crisis and reinvent ourselves and our
product offerings to support our customer base," says Biff
Gentsch, business development specialist, Anchor Industries Inc.

4. Embrace virtual-it's here to stay.
"I enjoy selling face-to-face and find this [lack of] most
impacted in introducing new products or identifying the needs
of our customers," says Chris Semonelli, vice president for
sales and marketing, E Squared. "But virtual meetings have
helped tremendously-in fact, I feel more virtual meetings will
be the way of the future."

the most devastating downturns" he's seen
in his 33 years in the business. Some of
Anchor's larger accounts that got ahead
of the situation suffered less than others,
but small and mid-sized companies that
were caught off guard didn't fare nearly
as well, he says.
"Anyone who didn't apply for the PPP
[Paycheck Protection Program] loans or
who are highly leveraged will endure
the toughest comeback...if they survive,"
Gentsch says. "From what I'm hearing, it
sounds like many tent renters are down
anywhere from 60 to 90 percent over the
same period last year.
"The only ray of sunshine in that
equation is that labor costs are down
significantly as well," he continues. "And
we all know labor costs run between 30
percent and 50 percent, depending on the
type of business, the business operator and
the given market."
For an eight-week period, from
late March to mid-May, Anchor's own
production team was down anywhere from
20 to 35 percent due to employees taking
leaves of absence and not coming into
work every day.
Jennifer Fennell, director of
procurement for Polo Custom Products,
says workforce consistency has been a
problem for those in Polo's markets, as well
as for Polo itself. Headquartered in Topeka,
Kan., the company designs and engineers
sewn, sealed and thermoformed products
for original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs) in the medical, defense, fire and
safety, and industrial industries.
"Absenteeism as a result of either
positive COVID-19 test results or FFCRA
[Families First Coronavirus Response Act]
leaves continues to be an issue," Fennell
says, discussing what some in the industry
are saying. "We're also hearing about
liability concerns and future claims related
to COVID-19 infections after recent
OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health
Administration] decisions."

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Specialty Fabrics Review October 2020

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