Bundy sees return to pre-lockdown levels

Heat transfer and cooling specialist Bundy Refrigeration says production is returning to pre-lockdown levels after all its manufacturing plants were forced to close during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bundy's factories in Italy, Germany, Hungary, Turkey and Brazil were forced to stop production as governments imposed restrictions. Periods varied from country to country and for many weeks production levels were greatly reduced before full lockdown came into force.

“Even before the start of lockdown, procedures were in place across all our operations to guarantee the safety of our employees. These measures contributed to zero Covid-19 cases among our workers. We are grateful to our colleagues for the care and respect they showed to keep fellow workers safe as production continued,” said Paolo Romeo, Group Sales and Marketing Director at Bundy Refrigeration.

“Like many businesses we suffered a decline in sales during the peak months of the pandemic in April, May and, to a lesser extent, June. This was because most of our customers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), were forced to stop production as well. Considering lockdowns occurred at different times, customers appreciated the efforts we made in building up stock at short notice to avoid disruption to supplies. For example, when our Italian factory was forced to shut down, our factories supplying our German customers were still operating and able to fill the void as a result of the shutdown in Italy.”

Bundy now says it is beginning to see production levels return to pre-Covid levels as collaboration between production plants have helped to meet an increase in demand. Sales from its plant in Turkey are up 40% which has been achieved with the support of Bundy’s production facility in Hungary. 

The company says it is confident the domestic refrigeration market will recover quickly. “We are not expecting significant changes because of what has happened. People will naturally be cautious spending money in the short-term but domestic refrigeration is essentially a replacement market that has been relatively stable over the last few years,” said Romeo.

“What has changed according to our customers is the increase in the number of appliances sold online but this should have no impact on our business. We have been consolidating our operations over the last few years and believe that many customers will look to shorter logistic chains for their components. With our manufacturing footprint and collaboration of Bundy plants, we believe we are well placed to meet the demand of the world’s major OEMs in our industry.”

Bundy, which employs more than 1,000 people globally, designs, manufactures and supplies heat transfer and fluid-carrying cooling system components for the refrigeration and household appliance industry.