Fox Marble curtails operations amid coronavirus pandemic
By Josh White
Date: Friday 03 Apr 2020
(Sharecast News) - Fox Marble updated the market on the impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic on Friday, explaining that the spread of the disease was having a "significant impact" on the marble extraction and processing market, given the international travel and working restrictions in place in a number of countries.
The AIM-traded company said its highest priority was the continued wellbeing of its employees, customers and stakeholders, both in the UK and Kosovo.
It explained that, given the continued uncertainty on the potential impact and duration of the pandemic, it had taken preemptive steps to both ensure the wellbeing of those affected, as well as to best position the firm for future operations.
In Kosovo, Fox said that the government had introduced a number of measures to try and curb the further spread of Covid-19, including travel restrictions, school closures and closures of non-essential shops and venues.
All flights into Kosovo had been cancelled since 16 March, while land borders were also closed to non-Kosovo citizens.
On 23 March, all private businesses, apart from some designated sectors, were also ordered to close.
Under the current legislation, Fox said its operations were permitted to continue, as it fell within a designated sector.
The board said the firm would continue to operate the factory, though it would scale back operations to specific projects.
That, it explained, would allow the implementation of extra distancing procedures to protect its workforce, as well as to take into account the impact of the pandemic on its customers.
Existing and committed projects would be completed, though timelines would be closely managed in coordination with clients.
The level of operations at the factory would be assessed every fortnight.
Fox Marble said its factory had, over the first quarter of the year, developed a "strong" order book of projects for the local Kosovan market, adding that it hoped to return to a higher rate of production as soon as conditions permitted.
In North Macedonia, the board noted that demand had fallen as a result of travel restrictions placed on China - the principal buyer of its block marble - since January.
The spread of the virus into Europe and the resulting impact on cross-border travel and trade had magnified that effect, it added.
Fox said it had "significantly" scaled back production at the quarry, in order to keep operational cash flow neutral until the international block marble market returned to normality.
The firm said it was "well positioned" to ramp up operations as and when it was feasible to do so.
The board said it would continue to closely monitor the situation, adding that working capital would continue to be tightly managed.
It said that while operations were temporarily suspended, it would seek to eliminate all unnecessary expenditure, with the board not taking any salary or fees until operations resumed.
Head office staff in London were now on government-supported furlough, as the firm worked to retain its team.
"Our focus during the rapidly evolving situations is the wellbeing of our workforce, customers and stakeholders," said chief executive officer Chris Gilbert.
"During this time of heightened uncertainty, we are strictly managing our cash flow.
"We hope to be able to resume full operations in both the factory and quarries soon and resume the projects within our order book."
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