WEBVTT - Lands' End CEO Says Asia Getting Back to Work

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<v Speaker 1>You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and

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<v Speaker 1>Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. As you've been hearing all

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<v Speaker 1>along on Bloomberg. Many industries of course impacted as a

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<v Speaker 1>result of the virus. Looking forward to our next guest room.

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<v Speaker 1>Griffith is chief executive officer at Lantza and he joins

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<v Speaker 1>us on the phone from Long Island, New York. So

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<v Speaker 1>nice to have you here with Jason and myself. First

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<v Speaker 1>of all, Um, we hope you're doing well, your family

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<v Speaker 1>as well your workers. Give us a little insight into

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<v Speaker 1>how your world personally and professionally has changed. Well. One

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<v Speaker 1>of the things that has changed for us has definitely

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<v Speaker 1>been the workforce and how we're managing things, um, And

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<v Speaker 1>thanks a lot for the question on that's a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit different depending where we are in the world. We

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<v Speaker 1>have offices in Asia and Europe and here um. For

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<v Speaker 1>our workers in Asia, they're actually on their way back

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<v Speaker 1>to work, UM. Japan business has been picking up. Our

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<v Speaker 1>sourcing office in China, UH is starting to come back

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<v Speaker 1>in and where we're originally thought supply chain was going

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<v Speaker 1>to be a big problem, we see very very few

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<v Speaker 1>issues there, if any Uh. In Europe and in Wisconsin

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<v Speaker 1>where we're based, UM, we are on many of the

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<v Speaker 1>employees are working from home. Staggered staff if you're in

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<v Speaker 1>the office, uh, and the warehouse is still working and

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<v Speaker 1>shipping product out. But let's again on staggered staffing. UM.

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<v Speaker 1>And in New York where we have a small design office, Uh,

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<v Speaker 1>people there are home and working from home. Everybody is

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<v Speaker 1>getting used to working on teams by Microsoft. Everybody's getting

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<v Speaker 1>used to working on FaceTime. People are actually finding that

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<v Speaker 1>they're having some pretty good conversations digitally and making decision

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<v Speaker 1>staffs and moving on personally. I had my whole family

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<v Speaker 1>in the house today. Everybody's out of New York and

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<v Speaker 1>is working from home, and we're just looking for rooms

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<v Speaker 1>to have conference calls in exactly. I think we're all

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<v Speaker 1>doing that. I had to put an on air sign

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<v Speaker 1>on my you know, I'm broadcasting from my daughter's bedroom,

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<v Speaker 1>so you know, uh, you know, this is what we're

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<v Speaker 1>doing these days. UM. So Jerome, help us understand sort

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<v Speaker 1>of your customer at this point, because we know you're

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<v Speaker 1>in touch with them as well. You know, brick and

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<v Speaker 1>mortar stores are closed, I believe, UM, but you know

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<v Speaker 1>online continues, what what are you seeing as you sort

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<v Speaker 1>of get down into the customers sphere. Yeah, with the stores,

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<v Speaker 1>we have twenty six stores, so not not a very

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<v Speaker 1>large store base, and and we've closed that over the weekend.

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<v Speaker 1>I'll be closed for a few weeks. Online or online

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<v Speaker 1>customer has been very robust at the end of twenty

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen and then for the first few fiscal weeks of

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<v Speaker 1>up until about ten days ago, where we started to

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<v Speaker 1>see people's um demands slow down and really changed rapidly

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<v Speaker 1>day by day. UM. I think that people are much

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<v Speaker 1>more focused, or happened in the last few days of

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<v Speaker 1>just you know, can I get the basic essentials? I

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<v Speaker 1>believe over the course the next few days, as people

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<v Speaker 1>start to see that, you know, you can get food,

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<v Speaker 1>you know you can go in the grocery store and

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<v Speaker 1>get chicken and toilet paper, You'll be fine. Um, there,

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<v Speaker 1>their lives were going to start to turn to now

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<v Speaker 1>this is the new norm for the time being. How

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<v Speaker 1>do I manage through? So? Uh, you know, we're staying

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<v Speaker 1>on a day by day We are seeing some people

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<v Speaker 1>uh enticed by discounts a little bit, but that's not

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<v Speaker 1>what we're really looking at right now. I think it's

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<v Speaker 1>important that people have the opportunity to shop from home

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<v Speaker 1>and from the safety of their own homes. But at

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<v Speaker 1>the same time, I don't think it's right to take

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<v Speaker 1>advantage of any difficult situation. You know, it's interesting. I

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<v Speaker 1>want to go back to what you said about China.

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<v Speaker 1>Give me an idea, because we had a story in

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<v Speaker 1>the magazine last week that was trying to that. You know,

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<v Speaker 1>the question is is China really getting back on track?

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<v Speaker 1>Because from what we from what our reporters found out

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<v Speaker 1>is that, you know, yes, energy usage is up, which

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<v Speaker 1>is a key indicator to figuring out what's going on

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<v Speaker 1>in the Chinese economy. But we're also hearing that there

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<v Speaker 1>are projections that factories have to hit in terms of

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<v Speaker 1>energy usage, and that there are just people going in

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<v Speaker 1>and turning on the lights. From what you're seeing, what

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<v Speaker 1>can you really clearly tell us about how much they've

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<v Speaker 1>gotten back? Because I think the Chinese story does help

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<v Speaker 1>us maybe hopefully figure out how we get back and

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<v Speaker 1>how long it takes. Well for us, it's really two stories.

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<v Speaker 1>One is China, but also one is Japan. Um On

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<v Speaker 1>the China side, Uh, we had had been very worried

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<v Speaker 1>about supply chain straightaway, having said that China only represents

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<v Speaker 1>about of our production worldwide. Um, the guys were late,

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<v Speaker 1>definitely getting back from Chinese New Year. But as we

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<v Speaker 1>looked at production schedules and have been working with the

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<v Speaker 1>factories directly, we're finding that almost everything is going to

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<v Speaker 1>be on time or up to two or three weeks late,

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<v Speaker 1>which is actually okay for us from delivery standpoint. UM.

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<v Speaker 1>Japan was a little bit of a different story where

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<v Speaker 1>we had an ongoing business in Japan and we ship

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<v Speaker 1>out of Yokohama, which is where they had the large

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<v Speaker 1>cruise ship was quarantined for quite some time. Uh, many

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<v Speaker 1>of our employees ended up working from home. They weren't

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<v Speaker 1>coming into the office. We had customer service reps which

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<v Speaker 1>were working from home on laptops, and that went on

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<v Speaker 1>for several weeks. But they're coming back into work now.

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<v Speaker 1>Is the cases of on down to you know, small

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<v Speaker 1>numbers or even zero in some cases. So we see,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, it's like far as law. You know, there's

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<v Speaker 1>the curve. There's a curve going up and there's a

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<v Speaker 1>curve going down, and it seems as though Asia is

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<v Speaker 1>on the other side of the curve right now, And

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<v Speaker 1>are you seeing anything in terms of your own sort

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<v Speaker 1>of worker population in terms of cases and things like that,

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<v Speaker 1>and how are you managing that? Only got about forty seconds.

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<v Speaker 1>We haven't seen any I was saying to my family today.

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<v Speaker 1>It's interesting. You know, we talk every day. I think

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<v Speaker 1>communication is you must be up tenfold in the last

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<v Speaker 1>two days, and we have seen or heard of no one.

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<v Speaker 1>Now you have to knock wood on that and realize

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<v Speaker 1>most of our guys were in Wisconsin, which is not

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<v Speaker 1>really a hot spot. Yeah, exactly, all right, Well, we

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<v Speaker 1>really really appreciate it. I hope you come back and

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<v Speaker 1>visit with us at a time when we're not just

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<v Speaker 1>talking about the virus. You've got some really interesting collaborations.

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<v Speaker 1>We didn't get to talk about Reese Witherspoon. That's a

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<v Speaker 1>miss on us. And you've got some interesting stuff going

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<v Speaker 1>on in brick and mortar as well. Jerome Griffith is

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<v Speaker 1>the CEO of Lands and Johnny us on the phone

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<v Speaker 1>bunker down with his family as we all are. He's

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<v Speaker 1>out on Long Island. We need to do an extended podcast,

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<v Speaker 1>and and he's got a fascinating background too. He worked

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<v Speaker 1>it to me so a lot to get into their

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<v Speaker 1>we helpful, come back and visit with us