sweets processing asked small and large companies in the production and packaging sectors about their situation, which has been shaped by the corona crisis. Despite every-thing, the tenor is mostly positive. The order situation is satisfactory, and the future is seen cautiously optimistic. The questions in detail: 1. How did the corona crisis affect your company? 2. How do you rate the current situation of your company? 3. How do you see the future of your company?

Tina Gerfer, Managing Director, Rasch
1. The corona crisis has allowed us to continue driving digitalization in the company. We have accelerated the creation of home office workplaces. Meetings and start-ups are currently taking place via video conference. In the assembly area, we worked with several teams in order to keep operations running.

2. We continue to work with good capacity utilization and, due to our high in-house manufacturing depth and stable supply chains, we can largely keep our delivery dates. Our customers use the current situation to have existing systems increasingly serviced and optimized in our company. But, of course, we are also experiencing a global economic downturn.

3. A crisis is always an opportunity. In our view, the world has moved a little closer. On the one hand, this suits us, because we have a lot of long-standing customers with a high need for services and spare parts. On the other hand, in international markets, of course, a lot will depend on how quickly the European internal market in particular and the other borders are reopened.

Christian Hofsommer, Area Sales Manager DACH region, Tomra Sorting
1. We are using digital technology from webinars to live demonstrations of our sorting solutions customized for individual customers to bring our test and demonstration centres to the participants’ home offices. This has helped to support customers to keep inno-vating under the current circumstan-ces. We also have leveraged remote service and training tools to provide additional capacity.

2. With all the actions above taken, we are ready to help our customers navigate the challenges of this unprecedented crisis while protecting the safety of all the people involved. Customers are benefitting from Tomra Food being a global company with a local presence – a result of the strategy we have actively pursued of locating our experts as close as possible to our customers’ facilities.

3. We are optimistic since we supply machines and solutions that will be needed even more with changing retail structures. In the crisis, online retailers have seen an increase in demand and many shoppers say they will not switch back to traditional shopping habits.

Ralf Kettner, CEO, Somic
1. The crisis has shown that other ways of organizing are possible and work. Within a very short time, Somic implemented “home office for everyone”, established new communication channels and reorganized the production processes. Clear rules of conduct and the introduction of shift work allowed distances to be maintained and infection chains to be broken.

2. Since we already made the first preparations in February, we were able to maintain production in full. Due to the good order situation before Corona, we never had to think about short-time working. We had no interdepartmental cases of illness and were therefore able to get through this wave of infections well.

3. We are cautiously optimistic about the future, although we see a decline in the order situation. How the crisis will actually affect buying behaviour will only become clear in the near future. In the company, we will return to normal in the coming weeks – carefully and with the observance of various precautionary measures.

Andrea Boggio, General Manager, Sacmi Packaging & Chocolate
1. From the earliest stages of the emergency, we have taken all necessary measures to safeguard the health of our personnel, customers and suppliers. We got permission to continue our operations during all the Covid-19 emergency as we are recognized as performing an essential role within the food supply chain. We were and we are still doing our utmost to minimize any effects, thanks also to the extraordinary commitment of our personnel to ensure smooth management of orders, deliveries and assistance services.

2. We are reacting to the difficulties caused by corona. This crisis sped up the process of digitization of our company: thus, we strengthen online platforms, web conference systems and remote assistance to be always connected with customers. Thanks to our local branch offices, we can grant constant support worldwide.

3. This crisis probably will affect and change our idea of doing business in the future: we will certainly increase remote FATs and virtual SATs, what we successfully tested in these months. We will find innovative ways of marketing, like the Virtual Interpack experience, where we were showing all the machines that we would have exhibited at Interpack fair.

Thomas Czioska, CSO, LoeschPack
1. In the past few months, we had to adapt the company to the new situation, change the operating procedure and redefine some of the usual ways of working. We have done everything we can to guarantee a regular operating process: this starts with the safety of our employees and extends to securing our supply chains. Not being able to travel presents us with additional challenges. In sales, we have learned to break new ground with IT solutions.

2. Thanks to a strong order intake before the crisis, we have our order situation well under control. In-house, we benefit from the flexibility that we, as a medium-sized company, were born with. In our 100-year company history, we have already mastered one or the other crisis and see ourselves well positioned for the current situation.

3. Our main customers are mainly confectionery manufacturers. The mood there is a bit subdued at the moment. The coming months will show whether this will continue. For us, the question becomes intriguing as to the willingness to invest. Here, customers cur-rently act very differently, depending on the industry and country. It will depend a lot on how long the restrictions last and how they affect the global economy as a whole.