Keeping the wheels turning in the time of corona - Update (Germany)

How is your local market doing under the current situation with restrictions based on the impact of the pandemic with limited opportunities to meet your customers?
“In the last weeks the business is getting stronger, slowly but steadily increasing. And that is also the feedback from our customers that we are slowly coming back to a normal economic level. Still there is another relationship to our customer, the current situation unites us and the phone calls becomes more intense and longer.”

What new ways of working have you made during this period to keep contacts and proactively follow-up service to customers and support customers business since travels and visits went restricted?
“Much more and longer telephone calls and of course we use all conceivable ways of video calls, like MS Teams, Skype, Facetime, WhatsApp, JumpChat, Zoom, etc. I have increased the focus on the follow-up of offers and projects. And use the time gained when there are no customer visits.”

What is the common view from our customers on their business due to the pandemic crisis and do they feel that Sunfab is supporting them?
“Most of my customer expects a slowly growing market. Some are not affected at all and still on a high level, other customer had a dramatically trop down in the last six months.
All customers appreciate our good support, high availability and short delivery times. Especially that we can deliver all standard pumps and many motors from our stock in Germany. And that without any restrictions despite the extraordinary situation.”

The fact that the production and office in Sweden have been up and running during this whole crisis, any feedback from market?
“See above.”

Do you have any success story or a happy story from your customer engagements during this period that you have got positive feedback on from customer?
“We had a customer with total breakdown on his application, and needed urgently a replacement motor. It was an agriculture machine and every day with standstill could not work would cost the end customer a lot of money. We got the urgent order at 10 o’clock in the morning, and it was an unusual variant of a hydraulic motor from another manufacturer. So first this motor first had to be produced. Unbelievable but true, the Sunfab motor was assembled and dispatched in our factory in Sweden on the same day. The next day the customer held the new motor in his hands. And as he himself told me about the happy end customer, was in the field with his machine on the same day.

Great performance and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the colleagues involved in the: customer care, order, production, assembling and packing department.”

Is your market recovering and what is going to happen in near future, your feeling of the development?
“The most likely upcoming economic recession this year is overshadowed by the COVID 19 pandemic. This led to dramatic slumps in almost all areas. Even if we now have the pandemic better under control, the economic situation is still very tense and is only slowly picking up again. I think this subdued trend will continue until the end of 2021. In some sectors such as truck body builder worse and better in the agricultural industry.

Everything under the aspect that there is no second shutdown. I speak a lot with my customer about the situation and how will it end up this year and next year. And I got the whole range, from stay worse like the last six months and to recovery of the economy at the previous year's level from the middle of next year.”

Anything else you would like to say?
“Stay safe and healthy out there.
And please help to prevent the spread of the infection.
Please stick to the rules, thank you all.”