Europe is the current hot-spot of the global novel coronavirus crisis. LIXIL in EMENA fully supports the recent actions taken by national governments and supranational institutions such as the European Union to contain the spread of infections. It is undisputable that ‘flattening the curve’ is the only way to maintain a situation that will protect the greatest number of lives. In the meantime, the steadily growing number of measures impacts society and the economy to large degrees. Currently, no one, including ourselves at LIXIL in EMENA, can conceive of business as usual.

Whilst the safety and well-being of our employees, their families and our business partners is always paramount, it currently is the first and only topic that really matters. We have implemented stringent measures in our organization to deal with the current situation, from a safety as well as a business point of view. We are well aware that this puts additional stress on the organization and its employees and their families as well as on our business partners, to all of whom we feel an entrepreneurial responsibility to find unbureaucratic solutions to asymmetrical challenges. As such, we encourage close collaboration wherever we can, going well beyond our regular business. In these times, caring for each other has become ever more important, emphasizing the important traits of trust, mutual understanding and respect for the different challenges we all face.

GROHE is upholding greatly increased hygiene measures combined with a high level of information for our employees and to our customers. Already for some time, we have suspended international business trips, our participation at events, including the cancellation of internal events with and without external guests. We have kept and are still keeping meeting situations to an absolute minimum, restricting the number of people allowed in physical meetings at a time. Whilst we generally believe in the importance of personal interaction and face to face meetings, we must forgo these as best as we can with alternatives such as online meetings to support the flattening of the curve. Today, where ever possible, our staff is in mobile work from home. Yet, we still have employees who must operate on site to maintain business continuity of processes that cannot be done remotely. In these times in particular, we would like to express our gratitude and appreciation for their work. We have close meshed reporting procedures for unspecific and specific symptoms of illness, to ensure best possible protection of their health and well-being. Across all our markets and manufacturing sites we have implemented a strong network of local task forces. Together with our central EMENA task force they implement appropriate measures on the ground, evaluating the situation on a daily basis.

We would like to reassure our business partners, that all our employees are fully committed to your business. At the same time you might experience, that some processes and services are impacted by the overall situation these days. This is partially due to the many measures we put in place to ensure that safety and well-being are number one priority. Another reason is the dynamic situation that can sometimes differ to large extends, depending on your location.

With the next months ahead we are convinced that we will take this unprecedented challenge together with our employees and business partners with perseverance and bravery, making us even stronger and closer committed to one another in the future to come.

Sincerely,