UP FRONT 01
EDITOR’S LETTER
Talk about bad timing… Only last month in this column I was
just ill health but also public panic and fears about the supply
exhorting you all to escape the confines of your offices and
of everyday necessities – food, water, toilet paper and all the
get out to meet your customers and colleagues at the many
other niceties of modern life. How will those goods get to the
spring conferences and exhibitions that were coming up.
stores if delivery drivers are ill or self-isolating? How will
Barely was the ink dry on the March issue when the
those stores be staffed?
Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak in China went global and,
Furthermore, the global economy was already delicate –
as I write this, we are getting daily reports of events being
in this issue we report on the financial results of a number of
postponed or cancelled.
the major chemical distributors, which all talk about a global
Event organisers are obviously not keen to take such a
macroeconomic slowdown in 2019, particularly in the mature
drastic step: there is a lot of money tied up in a big show. But
markets in North America and Europe. It seems inevitable
at the same time companies are not keen to expose their staff
that a medical crisis on this scale – all around the world at
to risks and we are hearing that many are already restricting
the same time – will have a major adverse impact on demand
business travel, reducing exhibitor and visitor numbers.
for all manner of goods and services, and the logistics chains
That is bad news financially for hotels, conference venues
that supply them. Already the oil tanker markets are in
and event organisers, but also for airlines, airport operators
turmoil as a result of a slump in demand for road fuels in
and the staff who work for them. There has already been one
China as people stay at home more, while empty containers
airline go into administration in the UK and analysts predict
(and tank containers) are stacking up at Chinese ports for
that, if the epidemic persists, others could follow.
lack of cargo.
But, just as Covid-19 is a threat primarily to those with
Even now, talk is beginning to turn to what sort of
underlying medical conditions, then it also seems to be a
long-term impact the Covid-19 epidemic will have on the
threat primarily to those companies with underlying financial
world once it is all over. Will it signal an end to globalisation,
issues. And, as the situation is so fluid, by the time this issue
as consumers and businesses switch to more local supplies?
of HCB reaches you, there may well have been more
Or will it, conversely, make people more aware of the
corporate casualties.
inescapable inter-connectedness of the world? And what
For those in the supply chain, events such as the Covid-19 outbreak bring immense stresses. There are some obvious
will that mean for politics and global economics? We shall see – or at least I hope we shall. We might have
issues in terms of the supply of medicines, personal protective
to avoid all that hand-shaking at conferences, though. Now
equipment and testing equipment, as well as in the disposal
wash your hands…
of infectious waste. But this epidemic is bringing with it not
Peter Mackay
WWW.HCBLIVE.COM
