IFAT | Amid the coronavirus pandemic, what is the biggest challenge in your business field?
Carbon | Our customers are primarily municipal drinking water suppliers in Germany and thus part of the critical infrastructure.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the greatest challenge certainly was to secure the supply chains with our suppliers and to our customers to bring HAWLE drinking water valves reliably to their place of use. At present, it can be assumed that the special situation caused by the coronavirus will continue for a longer period of time. And as many global supply chains have virtually come to a standstill, short routes in procurement remain important.
IFAT | What opportunities do you see in your business sector in the crisis?
Carbon | Our business field relies on personal contact. Since this is only possible to a limited extent during the coronavirus crisis, we are increasingly using digital media and notice that they are well suited for some things. Nevertheless, we miss the direct dialog with our customers—for example at IFAT 2020, where we wanted to present some new products to our customers and get a first feedback. No digital medium can replace that experience.
