Laurent Mogno, President of the ECT Group, talks to Franck Boittiaux for ConstructionCayola.com
ECT’s Chairman took the opportunity to give an initial economic assessment of the containment measures taken, and to explain the company’s approach to dematerializing the flow of information with its construction and public works customers.
What are the economic and other consequences of the health crisis and containment on your your company’s business and your relations with your customers?
“The consequences were severe! We shut down all our sites on March 17 and 18, while we defined new working procedures to protect the health of our employees and our customers. It took us around a week to reopen three sites, starting on March 24, spread across the Paris region in the 77, 91 and 95 départements. These sites seemed to us to be suitable for contactless and to have sufficient capacity, as ECT’s model consists of receiving soil excavated by construction and public works operators and offering local solutions.”
What measures were you forced to take during the lockdown?
“We switched all positions that allowed it to teleworking and established strict procedures at operational sites, with absolute no-contact, i.e. no transmission of paper vouchers, no contact between employees and with customers, and no shared equipment, be it a computer keyboard or a bulldozer! “
How long do you think it will take for business to return to normal, or even to the 2019 level?
“Probably not before September, while keeping a close eye on what happens after that, due to the effects of Covid-19 and the municipal elections, so that there isn’t a relapse in 2021 linked to a lack of volumes to build, with the various players concentrating on today, in particular to assess the additional costs and the drop in productivity. Negotiations between project owners and construction companies on these issues are complex and ongoing. As far as we’re concerned, we’ve decided to absorb the extra costs incurred by the new procedures.”
How did you get through this period? Has it enabled you to reflect on possible reorganizations? Changes in methods?
“It was an opportunity for us to accelerate a complete digitization of procedures, which was already well advanced. We are finalizing our digital solution, which will be operational in early June and will have an impact on productivity. On May 22, the European Union published a roadmap calling, among other things, for the promotion of nature in the city through the implementation of a plan for the greening of urban and peri-urban spaces in municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants by the end of 2021. We find this development very interesting, as it aims to develop spaces as we make them. Man needs nature in the city!
