Looking back on the last few months of quasi-lockdown, Managing Director Marisa Xuereb reflects that Raesch Quarz fared “pretty well” from an operational standpoint, having not experienced any major logistical delays thanks to the support of their logistics partners.

“Our main customers are companies of international standing who rushed to place orders to secure their supply chain,” she explains, which meant that the company was busy throughout, with employees doing their best to meet the demand.

Stating that the workforce was cooperative throughout, Ms Xuereb notes that the company provided teleworking facilities for office employees and took all possible measures to mitigate contagion risks for employees who work in the production hall and were hence unable to work from home.

“Many of these measures created some workflow inefficiencies that placed more pressure on capacity,” she reveals, adding that the first few weeks were particularly challenging.

“We tried to create a safe bubble within our production hall and went to the extent of having basic groceries available on the premises to minimise the extent to which our employees had to expose themselves to public places,” she says.

Ms Xuereb affirms that measures provided reassurance, helping to ease employees’ concerns about the contagion risks they could be facing by having to leave home for work, allowing them to focus on their work without having to worry about other issues.

“By the end of the quasi-lockdown period, we were exhausted but satisfied that we had managed the situation proactively and with a great sense of responsibility across all levels,” she maintains.

However, the Managing Director highlights that the going will get tougher now that the real impact of COVID on international markets kicks in.

“Anyone who is operating in international markets – from airlines and hotels to manufacturing companies to corporate service providers – knows all too well that we are nowhere next to normal, and that there is a long and challenging road ahead,” Ms Xuereb attests.

She stressed that while we may be returning to a sense of normality socially, it is a different story economically, where export activity remains subdued.

Warning that “we would be naïve to think that it’s all behind us”, the Deputy-President of the Malta Chamber predicts that the international economy will take a couple of years to get back to pre-COVID levels of confidence. Apart from that, she continues, some industries may change forever.

“We have discovered that a lot of corporate travel is not really necessary, and while nothing beats face-to-face interaction, the frequency of this can be reduced by using digital technologies.

“We have also discovered that supply chains that are highly dependent on one country or geographical area are risky, and that just like it’s nice to have the little grocer around the corner, it’s also nice to have suppliers at closer proximity to secure your supply chain,” she maintains, sharing her wish for this to translate into a smarter distribution of business that is not purely based on price, but that factors in considerations such as risk mitigation.

Environmental considerations have also become more relevant for more people, Ms Xuereb points out, stating that the quasi-lockdown has allowed people to appreciate that life can be cleaner and healthier if we slow down.

“We have all missed socialising, but we haven’t missed traffic jams, poor air quality and overcrowding,” she attests, adding that the real challenge is finding a happy medium by making better use of technology and finding ways of assigning value to non-monetary gains.

“As long as we continue to measure our success in terms of GDP as we know it and shying away from addressing negative externalities and incentivising positive contributions to the environment and our community, there is a good chance that COVID will be a missed opportunity.

“The good news is that we are still in time to capture as much of the positives of this challenging period as we can. And that is exactly what we should be doing.”

This is an extract of a feature first carried in the August edition of The Commercial Courier