These are certainly unusual times. We’re all operating under conditions we couldn’t even imagine before 2020. Throughout Group CBS, we’re working from home when possible, distancing on the shop floor, constantly cleaning, sanitizing and making masks part of everyday life. Effects of the pandemic touch us professionally and personally. Many have worried about family, friends and co-workers infected with the virus – I know I have. It seems the old life path of staying healthy, working hard today and planning a tomorrow of living the “good life” in retirement is being threatened. We’re dealing with quarantines, personal protection equipment, testing, anxiety, concern for families, social and psychological disruption – from the elderly to young children. They’re worries we deal with every minute of every day. This is not business as usual.
Throughout this upheaval and new reality, Group CBS performed as well as we did last year. We are not performing as well as we had expected to this year, but this is a year filled with the unexpected. In response, we’re closely managing operations, cutting costs, looking for new efficiencies and making other changes we feel necessary to ride this out. On the horizon, the future is good for Group CBS and for our industry. We’re anticipating a very strong rebound across our markets when the virus threat ends.
There are teams of doctors and scientists around the world working to come up with vaccines to prevent the virus and therapies to help people who are infected. So, like we’ve seen in other health crises over the past century, this will be handled and controlled. Just like polio, the measles, chicken pocks and so many other viruses we’ve been exposed to as a society for thousands of years, this virus will eventually be history.
I want to prepare everyone for what I believe is to come. Sometime early in 2021 the virus will be behind us and a lot of work will be in front of us. We will be looking at a market that did not do all the maintenance they would normally do. Nor have they completed the capital projects necessary to keep their materials and products on their way to market efficiently, competitively or innovatively. This will become an opportunity-rich environment for Group CBS and our customers to deploy needed improvements, upgrades and maintenance.
Everyone needs to be prepared. We will be facing another one of those outrageously busy times like we’ve gone through over the years. There was Y2K, Houston floods. East-Coast hurricanes, Gulf Coast hurricanes and all kinds of other natural disasters. This will be on par with those recoveries and it will be sustained throughout 2021, so prepare yourselves. We need to be ready for a lot of work and activity at a very fast tempo.
Until the medical breakthroughs and recovery begin, keep yourself and your family safe. Group CBS is a family. If anyone has any difficulties we can help you with, please do not hesitate to ask your local supervisor. We will do everything we can to help carry you through these hard times. Thank you very much for being such a great workforce and great friends. We have a great future ahead for us all. Now, that’s enough doom and gloom. Let’s get back to work.