By Ed Avis
Last week APDSP conducted a survey of reprographics shops to ask them how they are dealing with the coronavirus crisis. The effects of the crisis on sales are grim, as we expected, none of the respondents have closed their businesses yet, even temporarily.
Are You Open?
The first question simply asked, “Is Your Business Still Open?” Of the 23 companies responding, 15 (65 percent) replied that they are open and haven’t changed services or hours, while the remaining 8 (35 percent) said they are open but with limited services or hours.
A question later in the survey asked whether the shop owners would reopen if the crisis caused them to close, and 85 percent said they would.
Not Many Layoffs
Surprisingly, the crisis has not yet caused a large number of layoffs in the reprographics industry. Only one respondent said their firm has laid off all staff, while 44 percent said they have laid off some staff. The remaining 52 percent have not laid off anybody.
But Business is Down
As expected, no one reported an increase in sales over the past two weeks compared to the same period last year, and the majority of respondents reported some level of decrease. Here is the exact breakdown:
- Our business is about the same as usual: 18%
- Our business has dropped by 25 percent or less: 5%
- Our business has dropped by 26 percent to 50 percent: 45%
- Our business has dropped by 50 percent to 75 percent: 18%
- Our business has dropped by more than 75 percent: 14%
Worries Abound
An open-ended question asked respondents what their current business worries are. Their biggest worry? Cash flow, of course. Here is a selection of some of those replies:
- Cash flow, loss of sales, loss of trained personnel, new higher taxes in the future
- Potential slow down in construction or the state forcing construction sites to shut down
- Cash flow. I would like not to furlough or lay off any employees.
- Customers not paying us, or offering a reduced amount or paying very late.
- AR, customers are hording what cash they have on hand and may only pay us a stipend until they can see a light at the end of the tunnel
- Getting paid for work done in the last 30-60 days
A couple of respondents are concerned about other current business issues:
- Being able to get needed supplies from our vendors
- Letting customers know we are still open and available.
- Potential slow down in construction or the state forcing construction sites to shut down
Naturally, some respondents are worried about health issues:
- Hoping none my employees contract the virus and have bad results. Being able to continue to have enough work so my employees can have a paycheck and pay their bills. Related to the first comment getting shut down if someone gets the virus.
- My coworkers, family and friends getting sick.
Other respondents are concerned about the government programs that are designed to keep their doors open (if you’re also worried about these issues, click here for more info on that topic). Here are some of those replies:
- There's so much information. It's overwhelming. I don't want to miss an opportunity for support, and I really don't want to accidentally do the wrong thing and be liable or owe the government/a lender for making a mistake. I've applied for EIDL and will apply for a PPA grant as well. I don't want to accidentally violate the terms, but it's hard to really determine what those are. This is a small business. I don't have a legal department (or person) or an HR department, or anyone else to help me figure all these details out and keep accurate records. It's just me trying to take care of my four employees as best as I can!
- How to properly utilize government loan programs
The future, and what clients look like then, represents another category of worry for the respondents.
- Tomorrow - CARES stimulus, will it work? - recovering to survive 2020.
- Not worried about the next two months but this fall and into 2021
- Shift in how work is done, i.e., clients doing more themselves
- The viability of our customer base
- Aging customer base that may close and never reopen.
What Can APDSP Do?
The last question on the survey asked for suggestions for what APDSP could do to help the members and the industry as a whole. Here are some of those suggestions:
- Work with vendors to for the short run to extend payment terms in case we are shut down. (Editor’s note: Click here to read what some vendors are saying).
- We could use some help with getting the word out that printing and printer suppliers are considered essential, and letting the industry know that they can still get the products and prints they need during this time.
- Market why customer base should select reprographic companies to purchase their wide format equipment.
- Provide introductions for us to cross sell to others who are closed or struggling. (Editor’s note: This is an intriguing idea, and we’d be happy to help facilitate these introductions. If your firm is closed or offering limited services and would benefit from a connection to a repro firm that is open and offering full services, please email Ed Avis at ed.avis@apdsp.org. And vice versa – if you are interested in providing services to companies that are temporarily limited, let Ed know.)
- What can you do? I’m not sure what anyone can do.
- Pray for all of us. This is going to have profound effect for all of us and some may not survive this.
- Publish this survey (Editor's note: Done!)