Wywiad z Markiem Piechockim, prezesem firmy odzieżowej LPP

Actually, from day to day we encountered the situation that our employees stopped meeting customers, stopped having direct contact with them. This really happened on March 13th — all retail locations, all restaurants were shut down, not only in Poland but in most countries. Unfortunately, this means we've been deprived of revenue while still having to meet our obligations — to our employees, to our suppliers who produced our collection. The biggest challenge today is managing people in this context to preserve as many jobs as possible. Non-functioning locations generate costs on various sides, including the employee side. We now have a law that helps to some extent, and we'll be examining it closely to see how to apply it in individual retail locations. This is probably our biggest challenge — protecting as many jobs as possible. There's a broad awareness that today we're all fighting to protect health and life. But simultaneously, we're aware that the entire world — not just Poland — after dealing with this pandemic, will be in a major recession. It seems, based on what world media are writing, that it will be the largest recession in history, much bigger than the one in 2008-2009, which was called the biggest since the Great Depression of 1929. Governments are trying to support their economies through stimulation, injecting large amounts of money. What's very important is to protect as many jobs as possible. We founded the Polish Employers' Association for Trade and Services to talk with lawmakers about how the regulations introduced on March 13th affect our sector. In the longer perspective, we're preparing for the recession. As they say, during a recession you need to preserve cash, not think about recovering. For us, it's already clear that this year we will not be paying a dividend — we want to protect that money to maintain liquidity. Our plans are to do everything possible to protect the company from the consequences of a major slowdown and to safeguard the 200,000 jobs in the sector. But how this will look in detail, none of us knows. We're preparing for the worst. We've never had a situation like this. Never in history have all restaurants been closed, all airlines practically non-functional, all shops closed. This is the first time all of Europe is closed, the United States is closed. We know governments are doing everything to minimize the slowdown.

I believe it's best for everyone to focus on what they do best, and then the help is more effective. In the China area, we've been working for 30 years, so we have extensive knowledge of how and where to do things. When the coronavirus wasn't yet a concern here, at the end of January and first days of February, we helped our consumers, office employees, and Chinese partners by sending 500,000 masks. Now over a million are returning from China — within the next few days, by April 5th to 10th, the first 300,000 will arrive. We've already distributed several tens of thousands, and another 700,000 is on its way, arriving around April 20th. This is a very large transport of masks that will appear in Polish hospitals, and we want to distribute them to as many hospitals as possible. Through the Polish Employers' Association, we're also starting production in Poland of both masks and protective suits. Yesterday the Industrial Development Agency contacted us, and together we're establishing production capacity to start this week. We're also helping the Prime Minister's Chancellery acquire equipment from China — suits, masks, various items. I'm looking with great confidence not only at our efforts but at the 150 companies in our association. We represent a large part of Polish entrepreneurs — companies like Ochnik and others. We have many seamstresses, and we'll produce in Poland — protective suits, masks, gowns that hospitals desperately need. I'm glad it's not only us — many Poles have engaged in helping. The situation is unprecedented; we're full of concern on various levels.

What's encouraging is that many initiatives have appeared aimed at helping. People want to help each other, we've started to be solidary and partner-like — everyone, above political, cultural, and geographic divisions. We've also learned to work remotely using various media that allow us to see someone 500 or 1,000 kilometers away on a computer screen and carry out various activities. What's most heartening is seeing these initiatives, especially helping healthcare, which needs help the most — protective suits, equipment, supplies. There's a lot of social mobilization, not just us as a company, but many firms, enterprises, and individuals — whether doing someone's shopping or delivering items. It's a general social mobilization. What also reassures me is that social awareness of the threat is very high. Here on the coast, everyone is refraining from going out, everyone is staying home. I think we as entrepreneurs from the trade and services sector have managed to unite in these difficult moments, despite competing in shopping centers. Within seven days, we united — over 150 companies directly employing 200,000 people, and including suppliers, roughly a million. These are positive elements that make you think it's great we have active people helping others.

Thank you very much.