Industry survey shows resilience in the face of Covid-19

Conducted in late April and early May, the survey was sent to 180 members gained response from 65 of which 55% were local fabricators, and 38% retailers.

38% of respondents said that Covid-19 had a significant impact on trading, however 16% has said no impact to date, another 18% had said it had only had a minor impact and 18% reporting a moderate impact.

Some 35% of companies reported a turnover drop by over 30%, qualifying their businesses for the JobKeeper program, however the total claiming JobKeeper was 53%, with additional businesses expecting a further downturn.

A number of companies expressed their dismay at being unable to qualify for JobKeeper earlier in the pandemic, instead having to wait until the end of May to show eligibility.

Those worst hit by the pandemic seem to have already felt the full effects with few other respondents believing that they will suffer downturns of 30% or more with around 60% of businesses believing that in the next three months they will experience falls of 0-30%.

Management responses have been fairly predictable with 45% of companies reducing hours, 31% to four days and 13% to 3 days a week. This trend looks to continue with the percentage of companies reporting they will stay at five days dropping to 42% when asked about the next three months.

When asked specifically what changes companies had made, most companies mentioned their physical distancing and sanitation measures, others talked about furloughing staff and a few even mentioned redundancies. Temporary closures of stores were mentioned, but these were the exception in the responses, with most operating with changed operating hours and procedures.

A few companies even reported that the isolation rules imposed by state Governments had led to an upturn in business.

“We moved to virtual consultations for a short period of time, our whole team also did the online covid training course. We have displayed this on our website and on our social media pages, we have never been busier with new leads,” one respondent said.

“Implementing physical distancing within the factory and maintaining volume has been the hardest issue. Our sales increased significantly on April 2019 (was run up to election and had a negative impact) March was slightly under budget. But April 2020 was our best ever April – nesting and Aussie made in our favour,” said another.

Respondents also seem to become more positive the later they filled in the survey. Those who filled it in April were much more likely to focus on getting more government support, whereas those that responded in May were more upbeat.

“It seems to have changed the nature of business, Sales dropped in March and April, now they have returned to near normal,” one respondent said.

“Surprised and pleased that as an industry the impact has been quite negligible. Interested to hear if this across the board,” another said. 

“We anticipated negative impact on turnover but have actually experienced growth. Home renovation seems to be a market that currently is booming – hard to predict how long that will last but maximising the opportunities coming our way.”

Full survey results can be found online here  https://mcusercontent.com/3fb5e64f79/files/a8a3a9a0-ab15-4c69-ac5f-70204bc1f251/SurveyMonkey_Results_22_5_2020.pdf