“Do not go out, do not dine together and wash hands frequently” has become “three character primer” for epidemic prevention. Recently, reporter of Beijing Business Today found that Dettol, Safeguard and other daily bactericidal cleaning and care products were well-received among consumers. Enterprises such as Liby, P&G, Guangzhou Lonkey and Unilever promised not to raise prices and stepped up coordination to ensure production. In insiders’ viewpoint, since the outbreak of COVID-09 epidemic, enterprises assumed their social responsibility one after another and fully mobilized factories and materials to ensure market supply and offer strong guarantee for winning the “epidemic”.
Refused a rise in price
During the epidemic, reporter of Beijing Business Today found from investigation that official flagship stores of Dettol, Safeguard and Liby did not raise prices. In A Letter to Chinese Consumers, Dettol promised not to raise prices and hoped the public supervise dealers and channels across the country. Reporter of Beijing Business Today queried Tmall flagship store of Dettol and found that the price of bottled Dettol bactericidal laundry detergent (3L*3) decreased from 254.7 Yuan to 249.9 Yuan.
When interviewed by reporter of Beijing Business Today, relevant responsible person of Shanghai Jahwa told us that product price of Shanghai Jahwa was closed to cost and could not change with change in demand caused by the epidemic.
When interviewed by reporter of Beijing Business Today, relevant responsible person of Guangzhou Lonkey told us that: “As a state-owned marketing enterprise, the Company ensured no to whoop up the price during the epidemic. In the critical period, the Company gave top priority to emergency supplies for disinfection and prevention of public utilities such as buses, subways and schools of Hubei and Guangdong and offered materials to other provinces through regular marketing channels. The masses could purchase products through online platform and marketing channel.
“Disinfection products are a kind of minority products in the market. After the outbreak, market demand for disinfection products increased. We should enlarge production capacity to satisfy market demand, play a leading role and cooperate with the government in stabilizing the market. Thus, we will not raise the prices.” Secretary of the Party Committee and vice president of Liby Group Xu Xiaodong said when interviewed by reporter of Beijing Business Today.
In fact, CHEERWIN Group subordinate to Liby Group made a statement early on January 22: “All subsidiaries subordinate to the Group cannot be raise the price of various sterilization and disinfection products sold through different marketing channels”. Reporter of Beijing Business Today found no rise in price in the official flagship store of Liby. Presently, The selling price of the combination package of Liby tea seed laundry detergent was 99.9 Yuan and the discount price was 89.9 Yuan.
New retail export of FMCG Bao Yuezhong said: “After the outbreak, bactericidal cleaning and care products were well-received among consumers and enterprises’ commitment against rise in price highly reflected their assumption of corporate social responsibility.”
In addition, enterprises made donations to fight the epidemic: Liby Group donated bactericidal cleaning products valued 200 million Yuan, Guangzhou Lonkey donated 40,000 bottles of 27t chlorine Wanli liquid spot cleaner, P&G China donated 1 million Yuan and 60,000 personal cleaning products, Johnson & Johnson donated 1 million Yuan, Unilever donated protective materials valued more than a million Yuan, Shanghai Jahwa donated cash and materials valued above 3 million Yuan and La Fang Jahwa donated 7215 boxes of La Fang bactericidal sanitizer and Yujie bactericidal sanitizer valued 1 million Yuan.
Accelerated production to ensure supply
“Epidemic is order and prevention and control are responsibility. Presently, the epidemic area and the market were in badly need of disinfection and protective materials. As a daily chemical enterprise and a listed state-owned enterprise, Guangzhou Lonkey should stand out and spare no pains to ensure urgent market demand. On the fourth day of the lunar year (January 28), Guangzhou Lonkey has resumed production of relevant production lines of cleaning and disinfection products and capacity of equipment has returned to normal.” Relevant responsible person said when interviewed by reporter of Beijing Business Today.
Xu Xiaodong claimed: “Many workers at the production line of production bases were willing to return to work in advance, factories worked continuously for 24h and employees accelerated production by three shifts.” Presently, 5 production bases qualified for resuming production of disinfection products subordinate to Liby Group have resumed work. In order to ensure “double demands” for donation and market, Liby Group also developed schemes to boost production, with output of disinfection products doubling up to about 40,000 per day.
In the notice of the official flagship store, Dettol has coordinated domestic and overseas production and transportation capabilities and recovered supply. Safeguard also announced in the official micro-blog to carry out 24h uninterrupted production during the Spring Festival and fully satisfy the need for Safeguard products.
Reporter of Beijing Business Today queried the official flagship store of such brands as Blue Moon, Liby and Safeguard and found that most products were marketable. Many consumers told us that products could be purchased and received from the official flagship store during the epidemic.
As to the reason for overtime work, relevant responsible person of Guangzhou Lonkey said: “The Company actively responded to the call of the state and the washing industry association and to support Wuhan to fight ‘COVID-09’, urgently arranged factories to resume production, got unified, ensured market supply, made due contributions to prevention and control of epidemic and shouldered corporate social responsibility.”
However, in the meantime of resuming production, problems such as supply and transportation of some raw materials and packing materials and personnel transfer existed. Many enterprises told us that affected by return of migrant workers during the Spring Festival, factories were short of hands even though workers were mobilized to resume work. Guangzhou Lonkey and other enterprises supported production and solved the problem of manpower shortage through cross-department personnel transfer.
Material shortage was also a challenge for daily chemical enterprises. Relevant responsible person of Guangzhou Lonkey said: “To resume production, we should overcome tension supply of sodium hypochlorite and other materials. Guangzhou Lonkey helped upstream material suppliers apply for work resumption in advance and solve the problem of material supply with the help of relevant government sectors.”
In order to improve shortage of packing materials, the Purchasing Department of Liby Group developed new packing material suppliers and coordinated with local governments in resuming production of packing materials to guide packing material suppliers to guarantee manpower and accelerate work resumption. Shanghai Jahwa actively communicated with upstream and downstream enterprises about ensuring supply of materials and recovery of logistics.
In the aspect of transportation, many enterprises said transportation companies were short of hands due to the Spring Festival and the epidemic. Liby Group allocated more than 1000 vehicles and more than 1000 drivers to deliver materials for a total of about 400,000km. Guangzhou Lonkey also actively sought third-party logistics resources to overcome shortage of manpower.” Relevant responsible person of Guangzhou Lonkey said.
Neglected neither production nor prevention
It is learnt that 25%-30% of employees of Liby Group have returned to work, about about 1200 workers have returned to the production base and 50% was predicted to return to work after February 10.
Economist Song Qinghui considered that 24h uninterrupted production could boost performance level of daily chemical enterprises but bring challenges to physical and psychological health of employees.
Therefore, enterprises adopted relevant measures to ensure safety of employees while stepping up production. Relevant responsible person of Guangzhou Lonkey said: “The Company made urgent and ordered arrangements for the epidemic, intensifying dynamic monitoring of production and management, arranging disinfection and cleaning of workshops and offices in advance, organizing purchase and distribution of medical masks in advance, preparing for body temperature measurement and anomaly record of people entering the Company and practically guaranteeing life safety and physical health of employees.”
Wile being interviewed by reporter of Beijing Business Today, Xu Xiaodong said: “Liby Group established prefect prevention and control mechanisms and all production bases established prevention and control groups and formulated prevention and control plans. Employees entering the Company received physical examination one day in advance to master their physical condition and journey within 14 days and establish ledgers. Besides, employees returning to work on the second day received physical examination, body temperature measurement and disinfection and were requested to wear a mask. Body temperature measurement was conducted 4 times a day, workshops were disinfected twice a day and densely manned workshops were disinfected 3 times a day.”
As to whether the epidemic affected the Company’s future development, many daily chemical enterprises attached greater importance to disinfection products. “The Company develops new product development plans every year. Specific to the epidemic, we will focus more on R&D of disinfection products and make adjustments according to market need.” Relevant responsible person of Guangzhou Lonkey introduced.
In the viewpoint of Xu Xiaodong, “Liby Group has always adhered to the development of big daily chemical products and FMCG. It has famous brands such as Cheerwin and Winking and abundant production lines in every aspect of family life. In future, Liby Group will continue seeing through consumer need, make adjustments according to market change and constantly solve consumption pain spot for consumers.”
Bao Yuezhong said, the epidemic was an opportunity and a challenge for daily chemical enterprises and brand value can be boosted after difficulties were overcome. In future, enterprises can launch disinfection products according to market need to satisfy consumer need.
Originated from Beijing Business Today
