“We are all going through an unplanned stress test at the moment. Each of us is affected by the coronavirus, and we can see its consequences everywhere we look. We have all taken precautionary measures, and we discuss the situation in a daily Skype call, while gathering information first-hand from our international subsidiaries,” said founder and CEO Sven Bauer. “For us, health protection is paramount. That is why we didn’t hesitate for a moment when we received a distressed call from manufacturers of urgently needed ventilators. We are in the fortunate situation of having access to an extensive inventory, allowing us to increase the number of batteries we produce for use in medical technology. BMZ immediately assembled a team to ramp up production. We’re not leaving anyone behind!”
The BMZ Group is divided into different product areas, in order to weather volatile changes on the market. It has 3000 employees worldwide making batteries for power tools (such as cordless screwdrivers) to storage units for photovoltaic systems and wind turbines to batteries weighing tons for industrial e-mobility such as forklifts and excavators. This means production at its factories has to be moved between the different product areas.
During the Coronavirus outbreak, the company says employees are allowed to bring their children to the office to make up for lost childcare options as schools across Europe close.
The German government has reportedly ordered 10,000 ventilators from Draegerwerk in Luebeck, while Hamilton Medical in Switzerland has ramped up production by 30% to a run rate of 20,000 a year to meet demand. GE Healthcare in the US is also ramping up production of ventilators.