Financial Times 08Apr2020

(Amelia) #1

Wednesday8 April 2020 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES 3


our workers were extremely anxious
about the contagion, if not terrified, at
the end of the day, they also realised that
they have to go home and pay their bills.
“When the government told us we
had to close, many of our employees
came to me and asked if they had to
worry about their job. They were all
scared. They can’t lose their salary,” said
Mr Toniolo, who oversees production.
Ms Masiero said she had no intention
of laying anyone off. “The ultimate goal
is to save jobs... This is not the year of
dividends and profits. This is the year to
keep our factories open,” she said.
Thanks to the unusually strong start
to the year, PBA has a buffer. First-
quarter profits were up 46 per cent com-
pared with the same period last
year. “We can afford to slow production
temporarily,” Ms Masiero said.
The company’s commercial staff have
continued their work from home, and
new orders are coming in. “Our current
order backlog totals over €2m and we
could have easily kept working without
interruption,” Ms Masiero said.
On Monday, Ms Masiero eopenedr
part of the plant by converting theunit
to make steel handles for the use of disa-
bled people in hospital bathrooms —
labelled as essential. A dozen factory
workers have been called back to
work. They will wear gloves, masks and
coats.
“Everyone in the factory, including
me, will be completely covered as if we
were doctors in an intensive care unit,”
Ms Masiero added.

This is the first in a series following three
Italian companies struggling through the
pandemic

“Virtual classes in a situation like this
are tough. Most of my students live in
the most heavily hit areas,” she said.
“They are fighting in the trenches, too.
“The healthcare emergency could
turn into a long-lasting economic and
social emergency, [but] we don’t have to
let that happen,” Ms Masiero said.
The government has imposed
Europe’s most drastic curbs o containt
the virus. Italians have been ordered to
stay at home except for emergencies or
essential work. All non-essential shops
and businesses have been closed. The
national lockdown is widely expected to
be extended beyond Easter.
“Everyone is aware of the fact that
what is happening is epochal, but we
have to deal with it, we have to deal with
reality. And the reality is that we must
go back to work,” Ms Masiero said.
Luigino Toniolo, who started working
on the factory floor four decades ago
when he was 16, said: “If in the first place

her company’s main markets. The busi-
ness is her life — even more so since the
outbreak of Covid-19.
“I even stopped reading books. It is
impossible to concentrate on something
which isn’t the outbreak right now,” said
Ms Masiero, who is the sole heir to the
company and has no children.
She takes her mind off Covid-19 when
she teaches a business philanthropy
course to students enrolled at the Uni-
versity of Bergamo.
But even this side activity provides
only short relief: Bergamo, a town in
Lombardy in the foothills of the Alps,
has recorded the highest death rate of
the epidemic. More than half of all Cov-
id-19 deaths in Italy — which have sur-
passed China’s — have been recorded in
the region.
The nearby region of Veneto, which is
home to Ms Masiero’s plant, has also
been one of the main areas to be hit
hard, recording 631 deaths so far.

DAV I D E G H I G L I O N E— R O M E


What threatens to be the most severe
downturn since the Great Depression
started with a surge in sales for Franc-
esca Masiero’s family business in Tezze
sul Brenta, northern Italy.
In February, more than 8,400km
away, factories were closing in Wuhan,
hit by the mass quarantine imposed by
Chinese authorities to contain the
spread of novel coronavirus. American
clients turned to PBA, Ms Masiero’s steel
manufacturing company, to source
components they could no longer
acquire from China.
“We started the year off with a bang,”
Ms Masiero said.
The bonanza was shortlived, and even
then a cause for worry for the 48-year-
old executive, who said she sensed the
health and economic catastrophe com-
ing to her region of Veneto long before
her employees realised the seriousness
of the Covid 19 epidemic.
“I told my employees that it was possi-
bly going to hit us, too. They thought I
was crazy.”
On March 23, the company was
requested to close its plant — the latest
in a series of more restrictive quarantine
measures ordered by the Italian govern-
ment. Ms Masiero did so in three days.
For the first time in PBA’s 50-year his-
tory, the machinery fell silent.
Ms Masierorecounts her battle
to keep afloat the company her father
founded as Covid-19 wreaks havoc
across Italy’s economic heartland. Over
the coming months, BA faces a fight forP
survival, amid the concerns of its staff,
its suppliers and the local community.
Ms Masiero wasshocked when the
lockdown saw usiness activity grind tob
a halt, when the death toll soared and
when fear settled in.
The Covid-19 epidemic and lockdown
measures are the biggest threat encoun-
tered by Ms Masiero’s business — one of
the almost 4m small and medium-sized
companies that form Italy’s industrial
backbone. The eurozone’s third-largest
economy, already fragile, is expected to
suffer the argest contractionl n its mod-i
ern history.
“When everyone realised it was real
and things escalated... the emotional
tension of my team was sky-high. Right
now you can’t be anywhere near a hospi-
tal, not even if you cut one of your
fingers,” she said.
Founded by Luciano Masiero, Franc-
esca’s father, in 1974, Profilati Brevettati
in Alluminio, which means patented
aluminium profiles, weathered count-
less recessions and domestic political
crises while gaining international stat-
ure. The stainless steel door handles at
the entrance of the Empire State Build-
ing in New York, which it supplied last
year when the building was renovated,
are one of its proudest achievements.
The company, which employs 120
people and whose motto is “For a life
without barriers”, produces tens of
thousands of high-quality door and win-
dow handles every year. Exports to
more than 40 countries account for
85 per cent of its revenues, which
amounted to €18m last year.
Since taking the helm after her
father’s death in 2014, Ms Masiero has
opened offices in the US and Germany,


F T R E P O RT E R S

A “global scramble” for anti-coronavi-
rusmedical equipment as broken out,h
a top Brussels official has warned, after
days of angry claims by countries that
cargoes have beendiverted to the US.

Janez Lenarcic, the EU’s crisis manage-
ment commissioner, said it was “diffi-
cult to arrange an orderly procurement”
to ensure crucial pandemic gear such as
masks and ventilators went to those
who needed them most.
His warning comes after a flurry of
allegations by buyers in Europe and the
Americas that pandemic supply cargoes
from China intended for them have
instead been sent to the US at the last
minute. While Washington has denied
any involvement,officials from other
countries and manufacturers in China
suggest a chaotic market of bruising bid-
ding battles for scant resources.
“This virus has spread faster and fur-
ther than anyone expected, and this has
resulted in a shortage of supply and a
dramatic increase in demand,”Mr Len-
arcicsaid.
Tensions have been heightened after
President Donald Trump last week used
a law dating back to the Korean war to
order3M, the leading US medical equip-
ment maker, to prioritise sales to the US
government. This week the White
House and the company reached a deal
for 3M to import 166.5m N95 respirator
masks from overseas, allowing it to con-
tinue to sell US-made N95s to Canada
and Latin America.
Chinese mask makers have told the
FT of an environment of soaring costs
and intense competition from buyers.
Xu Xueqiong, owner of Anhui Tianle
International, a plastic bag and packag-
ing producer that pivoted in February to
manufacturing masks, said prices had
“gone up by a dozen to 30 times,
depending on how many you buy”.
The scramble for equipment has led
to a growing number of international
claims and counterclaims about missing
or misdirected shipments.
Last week, the authorities in Berlin
accused the US ofdiverting a consign-
ment of respirators hat had beent
ordered for the city’s police force from
Bangkok to the US.
Washington has denied any official
involvement in the incident.
Initial reports in Germany said the
masks had come from 3M. The com-
pany disputed those accounts, saying it
had “no record of any order of respira-
tors from China for the Berlin police.”
In France,Jean Rottner, a doctor and
also president of the Grand Est region,
said Americans “take out their cash on
the tarmac [of the airport] and pay
three or four times the price for the sup-
plies we have ordered”.The US denies it
bought any masks intended for delivery
from China to France.
In the Americas,a delivery of 600
ventilators purchased from an
unnamed Chinese vendor by a group of
impoverished states inBrazilended its
journey in Miamilate last week.
The US governmentsaid it “did not
buy or block any medical material or
equipment from China for Brazil”.
Reporting by Michael Peel, Ryan McMor-
row, Nian Liu, Guy Chazan, Victor Mallet,
Andres Schipani and James Politi

H A N N A H KU C H L E R— N E W YO R K


The Wellcome Trust is calling on busi-
nesses to donate $8bn for the scientific
fight against coronavirus, saying it is
the “world’s best exit strategy” from
the lockdowns that have shaken global
economies.


The global medical research foundation
yesterday launched “Covid-zero”, a
campaign to convincecorporations it is
in their best interest to fund the hunt for
a vaccine, treatments nd testinga.
The trust s working with the Worldi
Economic Forum, industry networks
and philanthropic partners to persuade
chief executives ofmultinationals to
invest by the end ofthis month.
On the WEF’s weekly Covid-19 call,
which has attracted 500 business lead-
ers, thetrust will appeal to attendees to
donate.
Payments company Mastercard and
singer Madonna are among those to
have already invested in theCovid-
therapeutics accelerator, launched with
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Jeremy Farrar, Wellcome Trust direc-
tor, said chief executives needed to fund
solutions to the problem, rather than
just dealing with the fallout.


“Businesses and governments are
rightly concerned with tackling imme-
diate concerns — how to support staff,
keep trading and bolster economies,” he
said. “But we also need a way out of this
pandemic as fast as possible.”
The trust is concerned that govern-
ments, companies and even other phil-
anthropicbodies are focusing funding
on efforts to cope with the spread of the
disease and theeconomic hit, while
neglecting the need to find a long-term
scientific solution.
The global preparedness monitoring

board, an independent organisation
convened by the World Health Organi-
zation and the World Bank, identified a
$8bn shortfall in funding for a pan-
demic, in a report published before the
Covid-19 outbreak.
Thesum will fund organisations
responding to the crisis, including the
Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness
Innovations, an alliance formed in 2017
at the WEF that has beendistributing
fundingbiotech companies developing
vaccines.
It will also fund the Covid-19 thera-
peutics accelerator; the Foundationfor
Innovative New Diagnostics, a non-
profit organisation focused ontesting;
and a stockpile including personal pro-
tective equipment, which has been in
short supply.
Richard Hatchett, chief executive of
CEPI, said the spread of Covid-19 was a
“global humanitarian and economic
crisis”.
“While a range of social distancing
measures have been implemented in
countries and regions across the world,
the development of vaccines, treat-
ments and diagnostics is the most effec-
tive way to permanently halt the global
spread of the disease,” he said.

Factory in Veneto picks up the pieces


after body blow to Italian industry


FT seriesFrancesca Masiero’s family business has had to close for the first time in its 50-yearhistory


Procurement


Brussels


warns of


global bidding


war for


medical kit


Wellcome Trust


Business urged to help fund ‘Covid-zero’ drive


M I C H A E L P E E L— B R U S S E L S
ST E P H A N I E F I N D L AY— N E W D E L H I
D O N ATO PAO LO M A N C I N I— LO N D O N

Sufferers of serious medical conditions
eased by hydroxychloroquine have
reported shortages in parts of Europe
since US president Donald Trump and
others began to claim the drug could be
used to combat coronavirus.

The medicine, an anti-malaria treat-
ment also used by sufferers of lupus and
rheumatoid arthritis, has become
harder to find during the escalating
international campaign to deploy it
against coronavirus, European medical
advocacy groups said.
This highlights a potentially problem-
atic side-effect of the rush to promote
hydroxychloroquine as a virus remedy,
despite the lack of robust evidence that
it works.
Alain Cornet, general secretary of
Lupus Europe, a patients’ group, said he
hoped the drug would prove effective
against the virus but warned the dash to
use it was potentially damaging. He
cited anecdotal evidence that some peo-
ple had bought out pharmacy supplies
to stockpile at home.
“I think it’s irresponsible to have big

announcements when you can’t guaran-
tee that everyone can get it,” he said.
“The impact... is that some people
who need it won’t get it.”
Mr Cornet said a survey by his organi-
sation in late March suggested up to
60 per cent of patients had not been able
to find hydroxychloroquine at pharma-
cies. While in most instances the drug

arrived within a few days, in about 10 to
20 per cent of cases — potentially repre-
senting thousands of people — it did not.
Lupus is estimated to affect more
than 100,000 people in Europe — the
vast majority of them women — and
experts think use of hydroxychloro-
quine over the past decade has helped
sufferers live longer. At least another 2m
people in Europe are thought to suffer
from rheumatoid arthritis.
Both are diseases of the immune
system. This means many sufferers will
be at greater than average risk from

Covid-19, particularly if they are forced
to seek hospital treatment because a
drugs shortage has caused their condi-
tions to flare.
Mr Trump has repeatedly referred to
hydroxychloroquine as a “game
changer” in the fight against coronavi-
rus, despite an absence of clinical trials
proving its effectiveness.
The European League Against Rheu-
matism (Eular), which represents
patients, health professionals and scien-
tific societies, said it had received
reports of localised hydroxychloroquine
shortages in Austria, Portugal, Serbia
and the UK.
Drug industry officials say doctors in
some countries had been prescribing
the drug for coronavirus, leaving medi-
cal authorities scrambling to ensure
supplies to longstanding users.
“Hydroxychloroquine is a tried and
tested drug for rheumatoid arthritis and
particularly lupus,” said Iain McInnes,
Eular president.
“These are patients who are already
immunosuppressed and so they are part
of a vulnerable group. Lupus is a disease
that can target major organs, for exam-
ple the kidneys, so the risks are poten-
tially quite significant.”

Remedy search


Drug touted by Trump runs low in Europe


Modest start:
Francesca
Masiero, above.
PBA resumed
operations this
week, making
handles for the
disabled, a
product that is
deemed
essential

‘I think it’s irresponsible to


have big announcements
when you can’t guarantee

that everyone can get it’


Italy has the second largest
manufacturing sector in Europe
Gross value added,  (bn)

Sources: Eurostat; IHS Markit

Germany
Italy
France
UK
Spain
Ireland
Netherlands
Poland
Austria
Sweden
Belgium
Czech Republic

    

Confidence in Italian manufacturing
at lowest point since financial crisis
Manufacturing purchasing managers’ index
(below   contraction)











  

Manufacturing PMI
No change level

Video
PBA’s fight for
survival
ft.com/italyjobs

‘Everyone is
aware that

what is
happening

is epochal,
but we have

to deal with
it, we have

to deal with
reality’

CO R O N AV I R U S


‘Many
employees

came to me
and asked if

they had to
worry

about their
job. They

were all
scared’

Madonna: singer is among those
backing the therapeutics accelerator

APRIL 8 2020 Section:World Time: 7/4/2020- 18:50 User:john.conlon Page Name:WORLD2 USA, Part,Page,Edition:USA, 3, 1

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