“First of all, the good news: the company is doing well so far, in many areas we are able to maintain our activities on a large scale – of course taking into account the instructions of the authorities”, explains Raphaël Prati, Corporate Marketing & Communications Director of the Biesse Group. “There was of course a great deal of uncertainty on the part of our customers, especially after the announcement on Saturday that non-relevant productions in Italy had to be shut down. However, we are in the happy position that this restriction only affects us in part. We had to shut down some of the lines. Others continue to run without any impairment because the machines that are created there are relevant for the basic supply. And this applies to the wood industry, but also to other industries in which we operate, such as plastics and glass. On some belts there are machines that run completely 24 hours, here there is a special permit. In addition, machines that have already been completed are still allowed to leave the plants and reach the customers largely according to plan,” the Italian marketing specialist sums up. “Overall, the situation here is still quite good. With the production facilities outside Italy, we are very well positioned and see ourselves in a position to meet the demand in the coming months. In addition, there is still a very lively day-to-day business. Of course, fewer new orders are currently coming in from some countries, but the service and supply of spare parts is going very well. And new orders are definitely coming in: In some countries people are preparing for a ‘new start’ or are not even affected by the Corona crisis and the corresponding measures as much as we are in Italy, Germany, France or Spain.”

Federico Broccoli, Sales Director of the Wood Division and Director of all the subsidiaries, also confirms: “We work in close collaboration with our 39 subsidiaries to ensure business continuity for our customers. We support them with spare parts and services, as well as with remote assistance and interventions at the customer’s site, in full compliance with local laws. Encouraged by the high order backlog, we are going through these weeks of emergency with confidence and above all with a sense of responsibility. Furthermore, the machines that continue to be produced by our production plants and the technology available in our centres in Italy, North America, Australia, Malaysia and India guarantee a supply that is more than sufficient to meet the needs of Biesse and Intermac customers throughout the world and to respond to their technological requirements during this period. Thanks to this strategic reserve, we can also face the current slowdown with confidence.

Raphaël Prati goes even further: “First of all, we hope that with the current corona lockdown in many countries, we are only talking about a few weeks. And not over a phase of several years as in the economic crisis after 2008. As soon as the locks are lifted again, most things should start up again. And in other areas, the current situation is certainly an opportunity. The path of digitization that has been taken is getting a real turbo boost. With the IOT platform ‘Sophia’, we have been offering many digital services for some time now, and interest has risen noticeably. Such a phase forces even skeptics to rethink. The online connection of a machine will be the norm, not the exception. Digital twins and start-ups will also be. In addition, we will be putting physical meetings to the test even more in the future. Because we are currently realizing how well we can communicate via digital channels and video conferencing. This should make collaboration with customers more efficient in the future, reduce travel times and increase output. Webinars will increase, and training courses will increasingly be conducted online. In this respect, we are learning our lessons from Corona at an early stage by sounding out the opportunities and setting the course in the company accordingly. We also see many things as encouragement that we are already on a very good path.”