FEEDBACK THE COVID SPECIAL CONVERSATION It’s all well and good watching the daily briefings, checking all your news notifications and reading endless opinion pieces about the latest Covid-19 news and how it will affect us all; our families, our friends and our businesses alike. But to find out exactly what the party industry is facing up to and how it plans to, we need to speak – and listen – to the party industry itself. So that’s exactly what we did... RIAZ ISSA owner, Partyland, Portugal
“We closed on 16 March, a week before non-essential retail closure was compulsory. The first ten days also saw Above: Husband and wife team website visits fall Riaz and Cristina work together dramatically, so across all of the Partyland shops. ecommerce sales also saw a steep decline. After this, online sales began to stabilise and we were were kept very busy until the end of April. Balloons were in great demand and I was delivering them daily, taking all the precautions and leaving the balloons at the doorstep. Portugal’s National Emergency Call lasted for 45 days and during the confinement period we used Instagram and Facebook a lot to keep communicating with our customers. We reopened on 4 May, taking all the necessary cautionary measures. Sales are not yet back to normal levels but the figures are much better than I was expecting. I feel very fortunate for that, it has been quite a boost! Based on recent weeks, my understanding and appreciation of our industry has improved for the better. We are important in people’s lives, but we need to understand trends and move quickly. Companies without a digital presence will find it very difficult to survive, but clients will come to us if we offer them, variety, quality, sophistication and above all five star customer service. It is important to note that our situation is a reflection of the pandemic affecting the country. Each country has its own story. My final word goes to all in this industry: we have strong reasons to hope, but we will need to build well.”
JONATHAN GRASSI managing director, Grabo
Right: Keeping the Grabo family well and happy has been Jonathan’s primary concern.
“We did close our doors for a few weeks, but ensured that we remained close to all the members of the Grabo world during this difficult time, offering financial support as well as sharing thoughts, concerns and hopes. Our first concern was to make sure health and safety requirements were followed, guaranteeing maximum safety to everyone who returned to work once restrictions were lifted. Sanitary equipment is guaranteed, safety distances, isolated environments, extra personnel to guarantee constant disinfection... There is no way to annihilate the virus, but we have done our best to limit its virulence. We invited retailers and decorators to share their issues and worries with us. Combatting a virus is hard, combatting an invisible, microscopical monster is tragic: sharing these words has been a gift to the soul. Many of these concerns were focusing on the lower number of parties we may see worldwide. That could be true. But we know that people will always want to have a good time. And even if things may be a little slower now – and it honestly isn’t the case – they will eventually pick up, because that is what happens in a post-traumatic event. So now, where to go? That is the real question. We all have put our plans on hold, but we may have to reconfigure our life from scratch – and it isn’t to say for the worse. As Winston Churchill said: it is the courage to continue that counts. And we will continue.”
JIM CAIRNS vice president/ general manager, Unique Party
“At Unique we have been operating Above: Jim believes that throughout and it has most retailers will want been of paramount to get back to business importance above as soon as possible. all else to protect our colleagues and our customers. We initially operated with a reduced workforce, but we’ve steadily seen ongoing increases in orders from the initial lockdown, which have been particularly encouraging. We’re confident that this trend will continue, so we have continued to recall our colleagues back to work after conducting risk assessments to ensure that our environment provided complete protection and assurance for our colleagues to work in. We stayed open the whole time to
ensure that our customers who were able to remain open could still be supplied and while our lead-times were a little longer, our customers were delighted that we were there for them when they needed us the most. We’re not selling luxury goods – birthdays, events and celebrations all still take place in one way or another and party goods are non-price sensitive products that consumers will buy regardless of economic conditions. I believe that the vast majority of retailers will want to get back to business as soon as possible – I don’t believe that we’ll completely return to where we were, but I’m confident that we’ll see a great uplift when they do re-open. As always, I can happily report that we’re ready to completely support our customers when they re-open their businesses. And after this extended period of isolation for most, we believe that people will be champing at the bit to party!” JUNE 2020 PROGRESSIVE PARTY EUROPE
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