Published on: 07/22/2021
Martijn Hol in FBNed Magazine Family & Business
Holbox produces cardboard displays for in-store sales campaigns. Of our 450 employees, 70 percent work in production. If there is no work for them, the money pot quickly runs dry. When that scenario played out during the credit crisis, we waited too long before taking action.
“Don’t wait and see, but react immediately”
The financial consequences weighed us down like a millstone for three years. During the coronavirus crisis, orders slowed down again. This time I knew: we have to respond immediately. We had to let more than thirty people go. Of course that was difficult, yet the conversations were still good. People understood that the situation was unsustainable, and we promised them that they could return as soon as it was possible. It was a remarkable period. While we were forced to scale down production, the sales department pulled out all the stops to get our turnover back to its former level. Everyone pulled together. That commitment was wonderful to see. Thanks to the lessons we learned from the credit crisis, we were able to quickly streamline the company to a healthy business model during the corona crisis. That worked out very well. The first quarter of 2021 eventually became our best quarter ever, partly due to growth in the German market.
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