12Rexel Today 2020-2021
Responsive management of the Covid-19 crisis
Agile and responsive management
In the context of the pandemic,
Rexel s business activities suffered an
unprecedented blow in certain regions
and the customer and product mix
was upended: the demand from
electrical installers slowed, contrary
to essential services like hospitals and
critical industrial sites that Rexel
supplied on demand.
Thanks to the effort made to structure
data, organize teams, and develop new
digital tools, Rexel had access each
night during the pandemic to daily
performance data for every country,
including sales variations and
profitability. This agile monitoring made it possible to quickly enforce any
needed adjustment measures a crucial
responsiveness that was key to
adapting to highly contrasting
conditions, depending on the health
situation and lockdown measures in
effect in each region of Rexel s
operations. Thus,
on a country-by-country basis, the
Group successfully managed business
resumption as appropriately as possible
while preserving profitability, which illustrates the Group s ability to manage
costs and focus on the creation
of cash flow during a crisis situation. Within a few days, the entire work
set-up was reorganized and, thanks
to the support of the IT teams, one third
of employees moved to remote
working, exemplified by Customer Relations and Expertise Centers, whose customer service representatives
successfully handled all of their work
from home.
Service continuity
Rexel s activity never ceased, despite
experiencing a sharp decrease
in volume. This continuity was crucial
to maintaining the functions of essential
services and structures such as
hospitals, certain public buildings, vital
industries or local shops selling
essential items.
The maturity of the omnichannel model,
along with the adaptation of workplace
x20 the number of electronic signature uses in the Group, from late February to late May 2020.
x8 the number of messages per day on collaborative tools within the Group, from late February to April 2020.