Nektardesign
Old Man Riding Bicycle on Empty Street in Frankfurt During Lockdown
The nearly empty streets of Frankfurt, Germany on April 5, 2020. Frankfurt is home to the headquarters of motio, the German reprographics association.
By Ed Avis
There's good news today coming from Germany: The country seems to have gotten control of coronavirus, and some small retail businesses are being allowed to reopen. APDSP shares a close relationship with motio, the German reprographics association. Below is an edited interview with Achim Carius, motio's executive director.
Ed Avis: When did reprographics firms in Germany first notice the effects of the corona virus?
Achim Carius: When the first trade fairs in Europe were canceled in February, such as the motor show in Geneva (which was planned start March 5). Because of those cancellations, all orders for trade show booth construction were cancelled.
Have your members been allowed stay open or did they have to close?
The copy shops with self-service and intensive personal customer contact (approximately 25 percent of our members) had to close four weeks ago; the companies with production printing without direct customer contact did not.
You told me that you often spoke to your members on the phone at the beginning of the crisis. What did they say to you?
Some told me in tears: “We have been in existence as blueprinting service companies for over 100 years. Our forefathers survived two world wars, military occupation, inflation, currency reform, brown (3rd Reich) and red (GDR) socialism. We'll survive Corona, too.”
Some members feel that the corona crisis will bring about a tremendous surge in digitization and that printing on paper will diminish. Some members who have online print shops are getting at least some orders.
The financial reserves of the business owners are very thin. Almost everyone applied for state aid for wages. Everyone also received emergency aid amounting to € 10,000 (also called “helicopter money”).
Editor’s Note: Two things here deserve explanation. The state aid for wages – in German it’s called Kurzarbeiter-Hilfe, which translates to short-time worker assistance – is a government program that pays up to 67 percent of a worker’s salary if he or she is furloughed. And “helicopter money” is a government grant. It’s called helicopter money because of the idea of banks throwing money from helicopters for people to scoop up.
How has the crisis affected your members overall?
[The crisis has accelerated] changes to their business model: less paper, more digital services such as scanning, archiving, digital planrooms, etc. In Europe, over the next three years all plan submittals will be converting to digital format, which will make paper plans unnecessary. There will likely be hardly any plot service anymore.
How has the association (motio) helped your members?
For the last four weeks we’ve published a daily e-newsletter with helpful items, such as templates for deferral applications, subsidy applications, information about state aid, and templates of letters showing that the company is a "essential facility" and therefore must not be closed by the police and local authorities. We also made an agreement with Canon that until the end of 2020 all members can inexpensively rent a web shop system that lists their prices, product descriptions and photos. Of our three employees at the association office, one person is always present and two people work from home. This is how we reduce the risk of infection.
Has construction continued in Germany?
Yes, mostly. Some construction sites stopped because windows that are normally manufactured in Poland and Eastern Europe were no longer being delivered. But architects, engineers and planners have been working from home for the last four weeks and sending plot orders to our members.
Has the government announced when the shops will reopen?
Yes, as of Monday (April 20) all retail stores under 800 square meters in Germany will be allowed to reopen. Mercedes also is starting production again. The infection curve has been falling dramatically for a few days. The governments in Austria, Switzerland and Germany were the first to respond quickly in Europe. We feel that now and are grateful. In all hospitals there are still available intensive care beds with ventilators.
Greetings to my colleagues in my beloved North America! We will make it!!!!!