Human capital key in good times and bad

Textile machinery production is always a good barometer to measure the wellbeing of the textile industry. Sales of new textile machines are often the first to experience the impact of both good and bad times. nsc fibre to yarn has been making machinery for the textile sector for over 200 years and today you would be hard pressed to find a topmaking or spinning plant anywhere around the world that does not have NSC fibre to yarn machinery operating on its floor. Étienne Leroi has led the company since the 2008 financial crisis and has seen his share of challenging times. Victor Chesky asked how a company such as NSC fibre to yarn manages these economic downturns and how does it retain its human capital and continue to service its customers across the globe?

‘When things are really bad we, the French people, remember these words from our recent history’, says Etienne Leroi. “Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own”, said Charles de Gaulle. ‘This is the position that we have chosen to take at NSC. Our French pride demonstrates our will to survive and overcome the brutal disruption to investment projects in practically all area of the world market for long fiber spinning’, he says.

Firstly to remain fully operational, and retain and continue our sales, services, and spare parts deliveries despite restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our agents, in all countries, remain available to our customers.

Secondly, our dictum for this unprecedented time is best described by our commitment to the future of the wool industry, and to keep going. When sales are down, the first temptation is to cut all expenses and investments to the minimum. Since ITMA 2019 we have committed to retain our product list with fully automatic machines that can be linked up to a fully communicative production line either for combing, recombing and spinning. Our shareholder backing has enabled us to keep all of our departments working full time, in the office or from home. Every engineer from concept drawings to machine testing follows the values of “le Grand Charles”. Our company shares this strong belief, that despite this world economic disaster, the wool industry will come back stronger than ever, and so too will our customers eager to modernize their plants and “make the wool industry great again”. to take care of our employees. Of course we have done this before. There is nothing more discouraging than suddenly going from full production to empty production floor. Three years ago, we worked together in small groups called “s’améliorer ensemble” (perform better together) and the first thing we defined was what we stand for, and our values. Our objective has always been to satisfy our clients. We specialize in long staple preparation and spinning and we aim to maintain close relationships with our customers by providing communication and on the ground agent assistance.

Our employees are our major asset. South Alsace has been the most affected by COVID-19 in France and we have all been impacted directly or indirectly with disease and death. Fighting adversity and being compassionate may not be typical to business and industry, but during these many weeks I think we have succeeded in keeping the family of NSC together and well supported. Writing these lines, in the middle of the 2020 summer, we are far from knowing how the market will turn in the next months but we went through this first wave and are organized and ready for the next challenges the wool industry will face. This major pandemic has shown a generosity of spirit in our employees and it is the responsibility of our management team to continue to support them and their families. I am sure that our customers have been through the same experience and I hope that this pandemic will provide a real opportunity for the wool industry to also embrace a more generous value system.

This is an extraordinary year and it has provided me with the opportunity to remark on the way we have responded to this unlikely situation. I am glad to share this testimonial with our customers, regarding the way NSC has managed this crisis. We are more than just a leader in long fiber technology that has survived for 200 years. We are also a really human organization with a will to act in adverse business conditions and still take care of its family of workers.