When the factory in China that makes Romy Taormina’s anti-nausea wristbands closed for the Lunar New Year in late January, she expected production to resume by early this month. But many factories across China are still closed to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus, leaving business owners in limbo. “There’s no guarantee now when they’re going to be up and running,” says Taormina, who’s counting on a shipment of her Psi Bands to meet an increase in orders from Target stores. Many U.S. small business owners are facing a shortage of products or components because suppliers, who closed for the weeks-long New Year holiday, remain shut due to the virus that has killed more than 1,100 people. Even owners who stocked up in advance of the holiday are worried about a prolonged outbreak, looking for alternate ways to fill orders and even considering moving their manufacturing to another country. It has been hard for U.S. businesses to get information about how long the closings might last. After hearing rumors for a week, Taormina found out only this past Monday from her manufacturer that it was closed and didn’t know when it would reopen. The factory closed Jan. 18 and had expected to get back to work Feb. 2. Taormina keeps an extra six weeks of inventory on hand for emergencies. But it can take six weeks for shipments to travel by sea and make it through customs. If factory shutdowns are prolonged, “it’s going to be a tight squeeze,” says Taormina, whose company is based in Pacific Grove, California. Eugene Nadyrshin has been meeting with manufacturers in the Silicon Valley to build prototypes for the computer and electronics hardware he can’t get from China. He realized around Jan. 26 that he needed to find an alternate way of getting the prototypes; his clients need them in order to decide whether to go forward with production. “We have some facilities ourselves but often involve other factories for specialized components,” says Nadyrshin, co-founder of San Francisco-based CAD It App. He wants to avoid his customers growing impatient and taking their business elsewhere. The worry for businesses is that it’s impossible to know how long the wave of illnesses will last. The SARS virus that first appeared in China in 2002 caused a global epidemic that didn’t end until July 2003, according to the World Health Organization. Scott Thompson’s suppliers in China make ribbon and other components for the hoodies and other garments his company, The Saints Sinphony, assembles in San Diego. He’s worried about meeting deadlines to ship goods to his retail customers; he must ship in June so stores will have merchandise ready for the colder weather. “They need them to be delivered by a certain time, or otherwise they’ll cancel,” Thompson says. “If we get stuck with the extra product, I could lose a lot of money.” Thompson is considering moving production to Turkey, where he has also used factories. But the process of switching to a new manufacturer takes time, with samples going back and forth between the factory and his company; at a minimum it takes 30 days. If China’s factories aren’t producing again in three to four weeks, Thompson says he may have no choice but to make a change. Sam Jackson doesn’t have that […]
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