LIA conducts Covid-19-related industry survey
(UK) – The Lighting Industry Association (LIA) surveyed its members to establish the effect of the current lockdown on the lighting industry.
According to a recent survey about the Covid-19 effects on the lighting industry conducted by the LIA, currently: “89% of [LIA] 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.”
They continued in the report that many companies (69%) had reported “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.”
The survey also asked members if they had attempted to access the various Government support schemes, of which 47% reported positively. However, many had experienced difficulty owing to the portals not being fully ready or lack of support from banks.
Furthermore, “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.”
More positively, 71% of LIA members reported having a recovery plan in place ready for the removal of lockdown measures.
In a recent update since the survey results were first published, LIA adds: “Following our survey of LIA members on the impact of the Coronavirus on the lighting industry, our colleagues in other European lighting associations have been running the same or similar surveys. Here is a comparison (where possible) of the latest results from the UK, Italy, Spain and Belgium. We will update this as more results arrive.”
The Full UK report can be read here
