Coronavirus. Armella: «Seizing the changes»

Schiavetti Lamiere forate’s general manager illustrates the strategy to “resist” the impact of the epidemic virus.
“Covid-19 constitutes a health emergency with serious and unexplored economic feedbacks, which will certainly put a strain on most of the production sectors and this has generated widespread anxiety in all market operator.”

Starts from a general consideration, speaking with siderweb, Antonio Armella, general manager of Schiavetti Lamiere forate in Stazzano (AL) – which boasts 150 years of history and manufactures perforated metal sheets using carbon steel, galvanized, stainless steel, aluminum, corten, magnelis and not only that, used by customers from 50 countries on all 5 continents – before talking about their company.

«First of all, we took care to safeguard the health of the employees, our most important resource – explains Armella – quickly implementing a plan to contain the infection, adopting adequate health measures and resorting to smart working wherever possible. We can say that, to date, none of “ours” nor their families have been infected. ”
Thanks to these organizational measures, however, “we were able to serve the essential supply chains during the lockdown and we restarted at full capacity on May 4, to fulfill the delivery commitments”, says the general manager of Schiavetti.
Without hiding, but without dramatizing, Antonio Armella says that “the drop in turnover and orders is considerable but, we believe, in line with that of our entire supply chain. The cash flow, on the other hand, was regular with a loyal and reliable clientele».
Making a prediction of what will happen in the second half of the year “is extremely difficult but, despite the still weak signs of recovery, we are confident that investments and consumption will return to pre-crisis levels within a few months thanks to mechanisms of adaptation by individuals to the new social situation, mechanisms that are already in place ».
Armella, however, expresses a point of view shared with other sector operators with whom siderweb spoke: from the Covid-19-induced crisis important lessons could and should be drawn. “Companies – explains the general manager of Schiavetti – must grasp the changes in the continuity of their mission without improvising actions dictated by the situation but reacting in an orderly and organized way”.
According to him, in fact, “it is wrong to give in to the temptation to take rash actions to keep the production cycle active which could give satisfactions in the short term, accentuating and prolonging the crisis in the medium-long term”.
As for the measures taken by the government, Antonio Armella is decided: «From the institutions, which have moved slowly and in a confused way, we hope to have recourse, without bending at the time of the bureaucracy, to the numerous financial and social instruments available to them, introducing resources into the companies, especially non-repayments, but we stress that it is also their task to convey the message that the return to normal will be faster than expected to trigger a virtuous circle of spending,”

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