Level Beverages owner Chrish Graebner has explained how the Victorian lockdown will impact his business.
In an exclusive interview at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney during The Distributors conference, Graebner told C&I that the lockdown may have an impact on his manufacturing capabilities.
“My special situation is that I bottle Level Lemonade in Victoria and there is a whole protocol that we now need to re-establish and of course this could represent another bump in the road for my business – just as we experienced last year when I had to close the factory down for almost a month.
Graebner also shared how the lockdown will change the representation of his business to the petrol convenience channel.
“I only have one rep in this company – and that’s me. I am doing it all from the phone and from zoom meetings and the ability not being able to see my industry friends face to face for another period of time is unfortunate – so I have no choice but to rearrange my workflow based on not being able to see each other face to face. Overall I am an optimist, so I feel that everything will be fine. Even if our industry is doing a bit better than others such as restaurants, we are all in this together.
Reflecting on the high level of vaccinations among his family members in Germany and Sweden, Graebner had a clear message to the Australian community.
“We should hang our heads in shame if we had the opportunity to be way ahead of the curve – and the world’s envy based on our ability to keep this at bay and to have another wave due to slackness of vaccination.
“I hope this will be the final wake-up call for everyone to go and get vaccinated.”
Written by James Wells
