Beauty packaging manufacturer, Toly Group, boasted strong order books until mid-March, but the COVID-19 crisis has seen requests for purchases drop, pushing the firm to adopt a four-day working week across April and May, the Chairman and CEO, Andy Gatesy, said, underlining that the Group’s “aim is to save jobs”.

“In the last 10 days, order entry has been very low and invoicing to customers has also dropped,” Mr Gatesy explained. “It is clear that, if we don’t have order replenishment, we will run out of orders and, so, we have moved to protect and extend our order books by reducing capacity.”

The Group will review the situation again in mid-May, he continued, stating that the firm anticipates the worst months to be “June, July and August due to the eight-week lag between order entry and invoicing.”

The comments follow recent figures released by the National Statistics Office, showing that overall industrial output in Malta for the month of February 2020, prior to the coronavirus crisis hitting the island, had already slid down by 2.6 per cent, when compared to January.

The main decreases were seen in the production of energy (by 13.4 per cent) and capital goods (by 3.6 per cent), though a nominal rise was registered in the production of consumer goods (by 0.5 per cent) and intermediate goods (by 0.3 per cent), under which Toly’s product range would fall. 

The figures for March have not yet been released.

Indeed, despite the situation being in control for the time being, the CEO said that if no order entry is received by autumn, “then we will have to start making big cuts to match costs with income”, quickly adding that his feeling was that “the lock down will not last that long.”

He also pointed out that, although the beauty industry has been hit by COVID-19, with retail stores having been shuttered across the globe and online sales not succeeding in replacing these main channels, it is expected to make a quicker recovery than some other sectors, such as tourism and travel. 

“Historically, the beauty industry is fairly recession proof and its products will continue to be desired by consumers, both for basic needs as well as an indulgence,” he said. 

Yet, he encouraged the authorities to continue to heed the recommendations made by the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, stating that companies with drops in business need support.