It is hard to escape the fallout from Covid and even the most robust businesses such as Nobilia have been effected, so how did Nobilia Kitchens Lockdown Plans fair?
The German kitchen manufacturer said that it had continued production at both of its factories throughout the lockdown period and impressively had been able to maintain. a delivery schedule of three to four weeks.
Another German kitchens brand Schuller (who also have the designer brand of Next 125 kitchens) also reported similar similar preparations back in April, as Germany seemed better able to prevent the pandemic taking as bad of a hold as France, Spain and ourselves sadly felt.
Nobilia head of sales for North and East Europe, Michael Dohmen said;
“The coronavirus has presented us with some unprecedented challenges. In this extraordinary situation, our efficiency and agility have been particularly evident. With the shared commitment of all our employees, we have risen to this crisis in the best possible way and strengthened the position of our retail partners.”
Based in Verl, Germany, Nobilia operates two factories which manufactures some 3,400 kitchens per day and during the lockdown it says that figure did not drop. Again, impressive numbers from the German kitchen brand as back in 2018, the number of kitchens produced per day was 3100.
Nobilia is impressive both nationally and internationally and their reputation has led to over 8,000 trade customers in more than 90 countries around the world using nobilia kitchens as their partner.
To prepare for Covid and the impact on its manufacturing and to its supply chains Nobilia built up vast stocks of materials very early on in the lockdown.
In addition to the company's material stocks being increased to some 400% of normal (anticipating future delivery disruption) the company also brought in and several additional HGV's to keep its output numbers up.
Whilst Nobilia kept production going, the company also had to create additional storage capacity for those kitchens that were already but could not be shipped to customers, due to travel restrictions.
According to Michael Dohmen, some 300 HGV trailers were specifically hired for this purpose so that as soon as travel restrictions were lifted and customers were able to receive kitchens, that they could be sent without delay.
Whilst Covid hasn't caused Nobilia any concern for its survival it hasn't even dented the company's plans for expansion and it has confirmed that it's two new production plants under construction in Germany prior to Covid with be continuing so that the company can increase its production capacities further. Gütersloh near Verl, and Saarlouis, close to the French border are the two new locations for Nobilia and whilst Covid has delayed the construction, it is hoped that one or both will be fully operational before the end of 2020.
