Canadian Manufacturers Cope with Covid-19
How are Canadian contract furniture manufacturers coping with the pandemic? Better than expected. From May to July, they were shut down as “non-essential services” by the Ontario government’s Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act; the government offered compensatory aid. Since then, they’ve found imaginative ways to turn the massive economic disruption to advantage, even having fun along the way. We interviewed the presidents of three Toronto-area firms: ergoCentric’s Terry Cassaday, Nienkamper’s Klaus Nienkamper and Teknion’s David Feldberg, asking the following questions: >How has the pandemic effected your business overall? >What part of your product range has been hit hardest? >Have you introduced new product directly inspired by the pandemic? >Have you adapted existing product to pandemic conditions, and if so, how? >Have some niches you serve shrunk while others expanded, because of the pandemic? >Are collaborative benching furniture systems dead for now because they’re premised on seating workers close together? …
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