Coronavirus In China Disrupts Business, Supply Chain For West Suburban Home Goods Company Honey-Can-Do
BERKELEY, Ill. (CBS) -- A west suburban home goods company is one of more than 2,000 exhibitors that won't be a part of the Inspired Home Show 2020 at McCormick Place, which has been called off due to concerns about the coronavirus.
But that's not the only way coronavirus has affected the bottom line of the company, Honey-Can-Do.
If you've shopped at a Target, Walmart, or Bed Bath & Beyond, or on Amazon, you may have seen some of Honey-Can-Do's storage and organization products. The company is headquartered in west suburban Berkeley, but does some of its business in China.
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That business looks very different right now, and it has the company changing its practices locally too.
A chunk of Honey-Can-Do's products are manufactured in China. They make their way to the Berkeley warehouse where they are shipped all over the country.
Honey-Can-Do founder Steve Greenspon said some production facilities in China are operating at 30% to 70% because of the coronavirus.
"It's very safe to say the coronavirus has had a very substantive impact on the business," Greenspon said.
He said employees of their Shanghai office were quarantined for two weeks after Chinese New Year. Now they are rotating.
"So that way, we're not exposing our full staff to each other," Greenspon said.
The company is also changing cleaning practices in China – and they've started doing so in Berkeley too.
But the day-to-day may change in another way in the near future.
"We're going to start seeing shortages in probably a month or so," Greenspon said.
He said the coronavirus production backlog in China could delay their business six to eight weeks. Others with business in China reporting several months.
That is something that could affect the average customer soon.
"They might want to take a look on their store shelves now, or be aware that if their favorite retailer is out of these products that it may be coming soon," Greenspon said.
He said the company should be back at 100 percent in just a couple weeks, and any products missing from shelves will probably be replaced with others temporarily.
