HAULOTTE FACING THE COVID-19

Current situation and outlook

Interview with Patrice Métairie, Industrial Director of the Haulotte Group and Stéphane Hubert, Director of Customer Experience.

How have you managed this crisis?

Stéphane H.: Facing this crisis of an unprecedented nature and exceptional scale, we have made it a priority to take care of the health of our employees, whatever the type of position they hold. We have adapted our organizations in strict compliance with health recommendations to limit the spread of COVID-19. This led us to temporarily suspend all production activities at our plants in France, to give priority to teleworking for the employees whose activity allows it, and to implement partial unemployment measures, while also leveraging paid holidays to allow employees to have their full salary and limit the impact of partial unemployment on the public debt.

Patrice M.: Our second concern has been to ensure as much as possible the continuity of our activity, in absolute respect of the sanitary rules, in order to best serve the demands of our customers. We very quickly became aware that France would not come out of containment in a short time. We have therefore taken all the necessary cost-saving measures, by adapting our production plans, and by keeping a constant contact with our sales teams in France and abroad to understand business trends.

Stéphane H.: Between 2007 and 2009, we had already gone through an economic crisis of unparalleled proportions. We were able to manage a fourfold division of the market, a production divided by 8 in one year, and revenue reduced by two-thirds. We are therefore not hardened but prepared to face up to it. We are relying on this experience to better understand the effects of this situation, which is unprecedented, to say the least.

Today, what is the approach to the situation?

Patrice M.: We have gradually restarted our French production lines, which were temporally closed. We have reinforced all hygiene and safety measures to integrate the essential barrier gestures, distancing and hygiene, and completely reviewed our organization to ensure the health and safety of our employees: work organization, cleaning of workstations, distancing of these stations, etc…

For administrative jobs, teleworking is still the rule at the moment, and our employees will very gradually return to face-to-face work, with the implementation of the same strict and indispensable measures. All this is done in close cooperation with the social partners, in a spirit of social dialogue, and only when the safety of employees is guaranteed….