In mid-March 2020, COVID-19 locked down most of Europe and Asia. For Sterimed, a 900-employee maker of high-end sterile medical packaging, this development brought mixed news. The sudden 40 percent increase in demand for its products was welcome, but ramping up production within its French plants posed a real challenge. One element was particularly thorny: Procuring protective masks for workers was impossible in France.
Because it refused to endanger its employees, Sterimed needed masks. Having sold its products to China for years, it quickly realized that one of its Chinese clients was producing protective masks and could send several boxes of free samples, which didn’t infringe on China’s ban on the commercial export of masks. Sterimed ended up with more masks than it needed, and CEO Thibaut Hyvernat immediately thought he could pass them on. “I started calling my friends who run businesses and began sharing some of the spare masks,” he told us. Then, something struck him: “Instead of helping several dozen friends, I could help 20 million friends!”
Hyvernat found out that more than one of Sterimed’s Chinese clients were manufacturing protective masks and that China was lifting its export ban. Working from his home in suburban Paris, he called an executive team meeting, and in 10 minutes the group decided to launch a totally new activity: importing medical supplies. The company leveraged its core technical, regulatory, and supply chain capabilities to put in place the needed financing and logistics. By mid-April, the company had brought 25 million masks from China to France. Sterimed sold them at cost plus estimated transportation fees. “If air transportation costs exceed our estimations, we may well lose money. But that is not the point,” remarked Hyvernat at the time.
This story is from the Autumn 2020 edition of strategy+business.
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This story is from the Autumn 2020 edition of strategy+business.
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