COVID-19’s Impact on Businesses | March – May

Endeavor Greece Survey

Only the 15%

of businesses is secure in case of a second lockdown

JUNE 2020

Introduction

One week after the COVID-19 Outbreak in Greece, Endeavor Greece published a survey on the impact of the pandemic on the country’s fast growing businesses.

That first survey focused on sales and employment trends, the readiness of Greek businesses and their ability to adapt to the new situation.

The results showed that 60% of businesses had already begun to record a slight to very large drop in sales, which would likely affect their revenues for the entire year.

A few months later, in March 25-27th, Endeavor conducted the second part of the survey. The current survey, whose sample was 100 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 15 different industries that achieved high growth rates in 2019, reflects the impact of the 2-month lockdown on businesses and the day after for Greek entrepreneurship.

The survey captures the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in the performance, strategic planning and operations of businesses between March 15th- May 15th, as well as the degree of optimism both for the industry and the economy.

The impact of the first week

The impact after a few months

The impact of the 2-month lockdown on Greek businesses (March-May 2020)

37%

partially paused trading

50%

continued trading

1

13%

completely stopped trading

10%

>50%

have proceeded in layoffs and pay cuts

have suspended part or whole of their workforce

28%

have zero liquidity

31%

have secured liquidity for less than 6 months

30%

state that they will proceed to salary and personnel reduction by the end of 2020

15% â‚Ź

have secured liquidity for more than one year

26%

have secured liquidity for 6 months up to one year

5

The will throu

Impact on Business Performance The pandemic had a significant financial impact on the Greek businesses. Half of the companies have paused partially or even completely their trading in the past two months, while 13% of them have completely stopped trading. 57% of businesses recorded a drop in their annual revenues, with 17% of them recording a drop of 60-100%.

However, 24% of participants recorded growth during that period.

Salary Cuts & Layoffs Half of the participants have suspended either part or even all of their workforce. At the moment, only 10% of the companies have proceeded in layoffs and pay cuts, but the percentage is expected to increase significantly, as 30% of business owners state that they will proceed to salary and personnel reduction that may reach up to 20% by the end of 2020.

Use of Support Schemes Greek businesses used different support schemes to cope with the crisis.

51% of businesses stated that they have suspended a significant part of their workforce, while 35% of them have gotten a 40% reduction on their office rent. 46% of the respondents have suspended their tax payments, while 55% have adopted measures of expanded financial relief. 20% of businesses have not used any support scheme yet.

Sustainability The crisis affects significantly the sustainability of Greek businesses.

Specifically, 6/10 businesses face liquidity problems, as their cash runway allows them to continue operating for less than 6 months, while half of them (3/10) stated that they have zero cash runway. Only 15% of the respondents have secured liquidity for more than one year.

Impact on Business Planning The pandemic redefines significantly the strategic planning of Greek businesses.

Specifically, 53% of the participants operate based on the scenario that the recession will continue through 2020, 10% until the end 2021 and 3% until 2022. Only 34% of the respondents operate on the belief that they will be returning to their growth trajectory even during the summer of 2020.

Regarding the time needed for their industry to recover, 27% of the participants believe that it will return to the 2019 growth rate by the end of 2020, 46% estimate that the recovery will take place during 2021, while 17% does not expect to return to normal before 2022.

The New Reality

7/10 entrepreneurs are satisfied with the automation level of their operations. In the same context, more than 60% of the respondents consider continuing or starting to offer the alternative of remote work even after the end of the crisis. Regarding the reduction of their operating costs, only 2/10 plan to renegotiate their rent or reduce their office costs.

Finally, the fields in which they will be a need of assistance in rebooting by order of priority will be: strategy and business plan, understanding the shift in consumer behavior, human resources management, digital transformation, cost reduction, sustainability of the supply chain and the business continuity plan.

Endeavor Greece started it’s operations in 2012 and is a member of the international network of Endeavor. It is an international non profit organization that selects and supports fast growing businesses worldwide, with the support of top entrepreneurs and investors.

Today,

Endeavor

Greece

supports

35

entrepreneurs from 26 companies: Blueground, Centaur , CHB – Christodoulou Brothers, Dust & Cream, Ergon , FrezyDerm, Green Cola, Hellas Direct, HotelBrain, InstaShop, Konva, NumberAI, Nova Credit, Matternet , MTI, Orfium, Oseven Telematics,

Papadimitriou,

Pnoe,

Pollfish,

Raymetrics, Softomotive, SYCHEM, Think Digital Group (TDG), Workable, Vivante Health.