The Lighting Industry Association (LIA) has surveyed its members to establish the effect of the current lockdown on the lighting industry.
Currently, 89% of members reported their business remained open in some form with the most operative functions being sales (95%), dispatch (90%) and accounts (87%).
The average capacity lighting businesses are running at is around 45%. Approximately 44% of staff are currently furloughed and only 4% reported that they had made any redundancies as a direct result of the coronavirus lock down.
Many companies (69%) are reporting difficulties in obtaining raw materials or components with a variety of reasons, down to late deliveries, shortage of shipping capacity and slow return to manufacturing capacity in China among the most common.
We also asked if members had attempted to access the various Government support schemes and 47% reported positively, however, many had experienced difficulty owing to the portals not being fully ready or lack of support from banks.
On the subject of credit, 38% reported that their customers had either asked for or had simply taken extended credit with others reporting late payers deducting early payment discounts outside the qualification period.
On a more positive note, 71% of LIA members reported having a recovery plan in place ready for the removal of lockdown measures.
The full report can be read at www.thelia.org.uk/news/coronavirus-update.