In light of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, Christie Lites has confirmed how the current climate has affected the business and what measures have been put in place to combat the virus and ensure the safety and wellbeing of staff, end users, as well as the wider touring industry.
CEO Christie Lites, Huntly Christie commented: “Like every other company in our business Christie Lites is not immune and at the end of last week I enacted some difficult measures to counter the effects of the ‘shock-stop’ the industry has endured as a result of the COVID-19 virus. Sadly, this included laying off approximately 200 staff globally. This has definitely been the most difficult situation I have experienced in the company’s 35 year history. We’ve worked extremely hard to build and assemble a great global team and it was a really painful process to see some of our people lose their jobs.
“As such I feel it is important to speak about this publicly and this past week have taken several interviews with mainstream media outlets in North America. I have given an honest account to the media about the devastation to the industry as a whole and the effects on Christie Lites. I feel it is important to speak to the economic consequences that the Coronavirus has caused. In my opinion we have some leaders and politicians failing to use pragmatism and science to guide their communication and decision making and I did not want to watch 200 Christie Lites staff lose their jobs quietly and without a voice.
“Some people may take these media interviews and measures taken to mean that Christie Lites is now unstable. In actual fact I would like to reassure everyone that we are extremely stable and rest assured that Christie Lites will be here for our clients when they begin to return.
“Christie Lites has positioned itself to be able to endure a very long dry spell. I have no idea how long the work disruption will last, but we are taking a worst case scenario approach, and have structured our business to continue to operate (at the same Christie standard) for the balance of the year under the present situation.
“These measures mean Christie Lites can look forward to being able to re-hire staff we laid off once we get out the other side of the effects this virus has had on our industry.”
You can read full version on Christie Lites website here.
