When the Corona pandemic arrived in Denmark, most companies had to think fast and out of the box.
This also applied to KH OneStop A/S, where Managing Director Thomas Henriksen experienced great adaptability among staff and suppliers.
‘The first thing we did was put together a crisis-management plan for how we had to act in relation to each other and run the company in the months to come. We abandoned the annual cycle of work and focussed on the short-term day-to-day running’.
ThermoKing, whose cooling machines KH OneStop A/S is the sole distributor of in Denmark, established an international group of distributors, enabling them to share knowledge and experiences on the corona crisis. These experiences were compiled into a ‘playbook’ containing restrictions and guidelines for the day-to-day running and staff relations.
‘We introduced a series of restrictions, which, in addition to keeping our distance and using hand sanitizer, involved not interacting with staff from other departments. We have four locations in Padborg, and everyone had to stay at their own location’, says Thomas Henriksen.
It appeared to work. At least KH OneStop A/S has not had a single case of corona infection.
And with regard to the financial situation, KH OneStop A/S has weathered the storm.
‘We have not made use of the state’s financial support packages. Our workshop staff have been extremely flexible, working when we have had a lot of work and staying at home when we did not. In fact, our productivity has never been as high as it was during the corona crisis. Another significant contribution to increasing productivity has been our daily tactical conference calls with heads of department, who have shown good and responsible leadership during this period’, says Thomas Henriksen.
The office workers have also contributed in the form of a voluntary agreement running in April, May and June, where they have taken two to three self-paid days off per month.
‘Together this has so far enabled us to weather the storm, though with a lower turnover than normal. But we have not had to fire anyone. And we can thank our really flexible staff for that’, Thomas Henriksen concludes.
