Covid-19 Business update
Coronavirus situation update
Update – 8th August 2020
VICTORIA Stage 4 Business Update
Dear business partner,
Just a quick update regarding the stage 4 lockdown in Victoria that will take affect this week. I can confirm that the supply of goods from our Victorian distribution centres will continue as normal. We will, however, have to reduce warehouse staff numbers by one third by the end of this week. This will mean that there may be slight delays in receiving your deliveries out of Victoria and we will work very hard to keep these delays to a minimum.
Customer service and all other departments at Häfele are not affected by the Victorian rule changes as most of our Victorian staff are already doing their tasks from home, so it will be business as usual. We will, however, have to stop external sales visits and customer pickups in Victoria during this lockdown period, effective from Wednesday, 5 August at 5pm.
We are hoping that our Victorian customers are allowed to trade as there is some confusion at this point with the rules. Häfele will support you the best we can, whether you are trading during the next 6 weeks or not.
Thank you for your support of Häfele and our staff this year, a year that no one could have planned for. Häfele has 5,000 active accounts in Australia and I can count on one hand the number of accounts each year that do not make it. We have good people in our industry that know how to succeed. This year we have seen similar numbers, even with the Covid problems, and we will do everything we can to help keep the number as low as it is now.
All the best and keep safe.
Peter Farrugia
Managing Director
Häfele Australia
Update – 4th May 2020
Dear Business Partner,
With the reducing level of alert due to the improving situation we have reviewed what areas of our business we can either reopen or resume to service your needs better. There are 3 main service areas that I would like to confirm with you today.
1. We will immediately resume sales staff activity and customer visits. Our feedback is that you would like to see our sales people to keep you up to date with our latest promotions, product launches etc. We will only visit you after making an appointment, confirming that you agree with the visit. No Häfele sales people will be cold calling. If you agree to the visit, we will be at your service.
2. We will resume the ability for you to pick up your pre-arranged orders from any of our warehouses from 11 May. Safety measures will be put in place to protect both our staff and yours. Designated pick up areas will be introduced at all our warehouses so please look out for the changed arrangements. Please call our Customer Service Team on 1300 659 728 to organise your pick up order and allow 4 hours for processing and packing.
3. We will reopen all our showrooms nationally from Monday, 11 May. Again, safety measures will be implemented to keep everyone safe. Please also feel free to send your clients to any of our showrooms. Our friendly showroom staff will look after their needs.
Very confusing times for us all. We will do our best to make it is as normal as possible for you.
All the best.
Yours sincerely
Peter Farrugia
Managing Director
Häfele Australia
Update – 31 March 2020
Dear business partner,
A further update on the situation at Häfele in these testing times for us all. We now have many of our staff working from home providing you with the usual service that you have become accustomed to. We have increased our electronic communication to keep you informed of all our latest product developments as an alternative to our external sales visits.
We are preparing a change to our distribution structure to two shifts to broaden the staff separation as much as possible. This may cause an extra day for delivery on busier days as we transition to split shifts.
Our stock holding is still in good shape with deliveries from Asia returning to some normality. European lockdowns have caused some concern so we have ordered more stock than normal to counter any future delays and many of these shipments were dispatched before the restrictions were enforced. Transport through European borders to ports currently have no restrictions. There are some shortages of empty containers which we are managing with the help of our German headquarters. I am reasonably confident that stock levels for a majority of our products will not be an issue into the foreseeable future.
The Australian dollar continues to depreciate with a fall this year alone of over 15% against most major trading currencies. This has put enormous pressure on our margins with realised large exchange losses as we are now paying for goods that were dispatched earlier this year at the current exchange rates. In normal circumstances we would adjust our prices accordingly. These are not normal circumstances so we have decided to not adjust at this time and we will try to ride it out as long as we can as added pressure to your business is not what you need right now. You need as much support as we can give you and we will do our best to help. In return we are hoping that you will support us with your hardware needs. There may come a time in the coming months that we will have to revisit this topic and I will communicate this necessity then. For now we will hold our prices to do our bit to ensure that all of us come out the other end with a viable business.
All the best everyone. Stay safe and as positive as one can be.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Farrugia
Managing Director
Häfele Australia
Update – 24 March 2020
Dear Business Partner,
The situation is changing rapidly so I would like to update you on a couple of changes we have had to implement at Häfele to keep all our staff safe.
Effective Today, 24.03.2020 all Häfele showrooms will be closed to visitors which will also include pick up orders. We will redeploy the staff to our customer service phone lines which will increase capacity in servicing you by phone.
We will also cease sales staff visits to customers until the risk reduces. We will however step up our electronic communication and encourage our sales people to communicate with you by phone to ensure that you are looked after the best we can in these difficult circumstances. Häfele Online is a good way to keep connected 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please call your sales contact if you need further training on how to utilise our online platform to the fullest.
We are doing our best to ensure you have no interruptions with supply and service in challenging times. Our stock holding is in good shape and it is business as normal for now with the exception of the above mentioned changes. We will update you if the need arises of any further changes.
All the best and keep safe.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Farrugia
Managing Director
Häfele Australia
Update – 12 March 2020
Dear Business Partner,
The situation has evolved somewhat since my last communication on 13 February with a pandemic declared this morning being the latest development. We at Häfele have been working very closely with our headquarters in Germany and our partners around the world to ensure we have minimum disruption to our supply chain. The latest update is as follows:
1. All Häfele employees in the global hot spots are safe and healthy.
2. Our Chinese suppliers are ramping up production with the majority of staff back at work. We are now seeing shipments moving and do not expect any major delays. Our stock holding from our Chinese suppliers are in good shape and we expect this level of stock not to be at risk at this time.
3. Europe is now the focus where a majority of our goods originate. At this point in time, we have had assurances from all our key suppliers that it will be business as usual and deliveries have not been impacted to date. Again our stock holding from European suppliers is currently not a concern however we will monitor closely in case this situation changes and I will communicate accordingly.
4. Our worldwide Inventory task force is meeting regularly to ensure all Häfele companies are supported in the event that there is a critical stock shortage of a given product. With 80 warehouses around the world, we are in a good position to transfer stock if there is a need. Already we have received deliveries from Häfele Germany, Häfele Korea, Häfele India and Häfele New Zealand (as these subsidiaries had excess stock of certain products) just as a precaution.
We have recently made some decisions locally to ensure we can always service your needs without disruption. One major change is the relocation of half of our customer service team to a separate building reducing some of the health risks.
We will continue to keep you informed as information comes to hand or if the situation changes. At this stage it is business as usual and no stock delays are expected.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Farrugia
Managing Director
Häfele Australia
Update – 13 February 2020
Dear Business Partner,
I would like to give you an understanding of Häfele’s position concerning the potential global supply chain impact due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Firstly, we would like to mention that our thoughts are with all the people of China and especially those in Wuhan and the Hubei province. Fortunately none of our employees in China have contracted the virus and are all back to work as of Monday, 10 February.
No doubt you are all acutely aware how a global crisis such as this can have a major impact on supply chains worldwide. At Häfele, the majority of our product is sourced from Europe, which at this stage should not be affected, however, we do have some very popular items that are sourced from factories in China. It is far too early to understand the size of the impact at this initial stage; as you can see in the media it’s an evolving situation that we are in the early stages of.
However, there is no denying that there will be impacts on worldwide supply chains. Due to this background the Häfele group have created a worldwide China sourcing task force to help our group navigate through these challenging times. The objective of this task force is to manage our worldwide stock holding; with over 80 distribution centres worldwide, Häfele are in a position to utilise our worldwide stock holding to better fulfil our customer requirements.
In addition to this, Häfele have their own sourcing office in China employing 200 people who will work with our suppliers to reduce procurement delays once factories do return to work. Having a presence on the ground in China will certainly help us get back up to speed a lot quicker than emails and phone calls ever would, so we are thankful that we have a Häfele team in place and on the ground to assist us.
We will continue to monitor this situation very closely to ensure we minimise the impact on your business as much as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Farrugia
Managing Director
Häfele Australia
