With the confinement of French citizens in order to curb the coronavirus epidemic, companies are facing an unprecedented situation in France and have to improvise. Some printing works have stopped production and others continue as at the printing works located in Finistère Cloitre Imprimeurs. Christophe Dudit, the CEO of the company, which has a turnover of 14 million, explains how and why he is maintaining the business.
GraphiLine : Do you continue your production??
Christophe Dudit: Yes Cloister ensures production as long as there are orders. But it's shrinking like a sore thumb.
We have work to do for about another week and a half. We're running at 60% today. We have some cancelled orders, especially in the events and tourism sectors, but we're still taking orders.
How many employees are currently working on your 110 personnes??
At the beginning of the week the majority. But as of Monday, we will be on short-time working, with 40% of the workforce.
Are some employees worried about coming to travailler??
Some people are wondering: why stop the businesses, but not the entreprises?? There's a bit of a blur about that from the state. And if the government doesn't take responsibility, we take responsibility: we have taken steps to ensure the safety of workers and my second responsibility is to maintain jobs. In that sense, I keep the company open (and we haven't been asked to close).
What steps have you taken regarding coronavirus??
Telework was introduced for all those for whom it was possible such as sales, communication, part of accounting and HR. We also shifted the teams to the shop floor so that they no longer cross paths.
Each person stays in his workshop or at his machine and disinfects his space every day.
We have also closed all the places where people gather (the coffee machine, the changing rooms...).
Everyone stays at a distance of 1.5 metres from each other, hydroalcoholic gel is available, all transporters coming to the printing plant wash their hands and the plant is closed to the public.
Are you having trouble getting supplies from consommable??
No, except for the hydroalcoholic gel. In fact, the problem is at the delivery level: we can no longer deliver all our orders. And those that require other service providers such as routers are also a problem. It's a chain reaction.
What do you think about the government's economic measures for businesses? vous?? Do you believe the Prime Minister when he says that no business "will only be delivered at the risk of bankruptcy." ?
I hope so from all my v?ux?!
And when it comes to measurement, we turn to our lawyers and accountants every day.
I realize that many colleagues and other business leaders have not yet put in place the simplest measures (such as postponing bank loans or URSSAF contributions) because we are overwhelmed by an avalanche of information and it is a bit vague. For small business owners, it's very complicated to manage. We receive all the tax mails, so why not send an email summarizing all the measures prises??
In addition, some measures are announced, but the decrees are not published..
You are in contact with your Italian colleagues, who are about ten days ahead of France concerning the propagation of Covid-19, non??
Yes, thanks to the Impriclub network, we communicate with our Italian and Spanish colleagues on the measures they have put in place to deal with the restrictions imposed.
We have created a WhatsApp account to share our best practices. It's good to feel less lonely.
Are you worried about the future of the printing company Cloitre??
We'll do whatever it takes to make it through and we'll be there demain?!
We don't have visibility, we live a little bit on a day-to-day basis and the economy is bound to take a hit on the nose, but I'm optimistic by nature. And when faced with situations like this, you always get up stronger.
What I like at the moment is to see the solidarity of the teams to defend their shop, it reveals beautiful things!
