Are you ready for the lock to open?
Bill Howie
Chairman at ACQSYS Supply Chain Solutions, Roll Cage Rental and Variation Holdings
Well, here we all are, preparing to venture out again and experience face-to-face contact for the first time in months. So how did we all fare in Lockdown?
At ACQSYS we’ve watched a lot of our business shrink. Much of our activity is associated with hotels, laundries, restaurants, airports, the high street and, funnily enough, hospitals, that would normally have visitors using their shops and restaurants. So, activity has slumped in our traditional markets and it’s been a tough year.
But, as Billy Ocean sang, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” and, instead of bemoaning our fate and expecting the government to bail us out, we looked anew at our business. We tightened our cost base (without shedding or furloughing people) and we focused on efficiency gains in route scheduling and vehicle management. At the same time we have analysed and researched new sectors to address and we have plans for them when the country opens up. It’s no good waiting for that to happen, you have to be ready beforehand.
So, we are fitter and leaner, have new target markets, have kept in touch with our existing clients who have been hit hard as well and we are ready to rock and roll.
Like Billy, we’re still going!
Bill Howie
This article first appeared in acqsys.co.uk