Dennis Blog March 2020

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March 9, 2020 | |
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Hello All,

After two months of the new year, it’s time to write to you again. Time flies, and we have had to deal with the unsettling development of the Coronavirus that is currently taking over the media across the world. Let me repeat and say that the health and safety of our employees come first. Also, I want to give credit to Hunter and Jim, our leaders in CTAM, for the professional way they have been handling the situation.

Leading up to our next board meeting on March 31st, we are evaluating the impact of the Coronavirus to our business. This risk assessment includes lost sales in China, Japan and some Asian countries, the extra cost incurred due to our factory in Tianjin standing still and the delays of some of our new product launches planned for (in the spring). Whilst I do not dismiss the reality, I am confident we are handling the situation in a transparent and effective way.

Another topic I want to talk about is the development of Elephant. Led by Toby for some time now, we are starting to see an increasing number of well attended events @ElephantWest as a result of a more diverse events program and a new and improved Food and Beverage offering. We have also seen a significant increase in traffic to www.elephant.art and Issue no 42 of the Elephant Magazine has just been released. Building a community of creatives and giving them with a broad offering of inspiration, tools, experiences and services takes energy and investments over a longer period of time. Realising the entrepreneurial aspects of Elephant’s business development and potential, makes it a challenging but also exciting project that has my full attention and support.

Finally, some words of repetition with respect to our strategic focus and projects in 2020:

  • Profitability Improvements
  • Sustainability
  • Structural Improvements of our Service Levels
  • Future-proofing Tianjin
  • Delivering a B2B portal.

 

These projects are selected because they will have a long-term sustainable impact to our company AND are very cross functional in nature. All this “to inspire every artist in the world” which to me continues to be a fantastic purpose to be part of.

Thank you for your dedication and passion for our brands and company every day you come to the office!

All the best,

Dennis