Manufacturers in Spain are reopening their factories after two weeks in total lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus, with brands to promising to "bounce back".
Companies across Spain, including lighting brand Marset and furniture makers BD, have announced they are reopening their factories following the easing of lockdown restrictions in the country, which began on 14 March 2020.
Spain, which is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks of Covid-19, lifted restrictions to allow some industries to restart production to help ease the economic impact of the pandemic. A partial lockdown will remain in place until 26 April.
"A new world and a new spirit"
Marset, a lighting brand with a factory in Terrassa, has reopened at half production capacity after closing for three weeks.
"The brand and the company is actually as strong and positive thinking as ever, although everything has dramatically stopped," Marset CEO Javier Marset told Dezeen.
"We have not been able to present the new collections as we had expected but we will have to re-imagine new ways to bring our creativity to the design community," he added.
This week Dezeen launched a Virtual Design Festival to help brands launch their new collections digitally.
Demand is down as projects are postponed, but the CEO remains positive. "We hope that in few months a new world and a new spirit will flourish again," he said.
Lockdown "will almost have no impact on our customer's orders"
Barcelona-based furniture makers BD said the brand was "really happy" to be able to restart its factory after being closed for two weeks.
"We will bounce back from the lockdown pretty quickly since all our staff and suppliers are 100 per cent operative and the manufacturing shutdown has been only two weeks," said BD manager Jordi Arnau. "It will almost have no impact on our customers' orders."
However, many other countries in Europe and overseas remain in full lockdown and many borders are closed. In Italy, design brands have warned the government of an "economic catastrophe" if factories are not allowed to reopen soon.
"The main issue for us, and I guess for all the companies in this business, is the lockdown of the markets," Arnau told Dezeen. "We have many orders ready to ship that we can't deliver to the retailers because they are closed."
"The coronavirus is a humanitarian crisis but also economical, as we all know," Alejandra Gandia-Blasco, director of Valencia-based outdoor furniture manufacturer Gandia Blasco Group, told Dezeen.
"Most of our suppliers are closed or have cut its production so we can't develop our collections and new designs as quick as in normal conditions," said Gandia-Blasco, whose grandfather founded the company in 1941. "But we are optimistic with a special economic plan to overcome these days of confinement."