We have been told, it’s all in the news – coronavirus will
leave with us for a while. At least till a tested vaccine is confirmed and that’s
been predicted to take up to 18 months. Some states in the US, Germany, UK,
France, Switzerland to mention a few have all relaxed some of the lockdown restrictions placed upon the public some weeks. Germany for example, had
football matches yesterday in a closed stadiums and Australia has relaxed lockdown measures such that bars/pubs can reopen whilst maintaining social
distancing.
As the public adjusts to this new way of living, we take a
look out some industries that may likely see a boom in trading or operations as
coronavirus still a worry for most countries of the world. These industries we
look at as a result of the public demands in relation to social distancing and
lockdown measures which may be active for most countries in a while towards the
end of 2020.
Here is our 6 industries listed:
Information Technology
Even at the peak of the virus, the society depended so much
on the IT department to keep the economy going. We take our groceries for
example. A lot of supermarket had to make quick adjustment to their online store
to quickly adjust to the way we shop. Most had to adjust to vulnerable shoppers
and also changes were made to how customers can shop such as quantities that
can be purchased. This is just the little changes we as shoppers can notice but
it goes more than that.
These supermarkets had their IT teams working round the
clock from the front end of their website to the back-end of it. A lot is going
on behind the scenes for many companies, even the NHS trusts have their IT
working throughout this pandemic.
It is expected that many more companies will follow suit. As
lock-down measures eases up, many firms will be trying to either update the way
they do business to accommodate current situation or probably set a new IT
system that allows them to maximise their earning. Primark does not have online
presence and are losing millions every day as a result of the pandemic. I
expect that to change anytime soon.
There would be new mobile and desktop applications all
designed to work with the new way of living. Some firms or individuals will
seize the moment to create new apps that requires people to move less and get
things that would usually require movement. Employers are expected to acquire applications
that will allow their employees to do their work from home.
I feel that the IT sector will see big movements and as such
it will be an industry which will see lots of financial gains for those that
can seize the opportunity.
Health
This is the easiest pick of them all. It’s no rocket science
why the biggest need at this pandemic hour is our health workers. My heart goes
out to those that have lost their lives to the Covid 19 outbreak but if it wasn’t
for the brave health workers all over the world, the death figures would have
been much worse. Just 6-7 weeks ago the New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made a
public plea for health workers to support his state as New York City faced the
worst coronavirus outbreak in the United States.
It is expected that even after the pandemic episodes are
over, all over the world, there would huge demand of health workers. Most
countries were overwhelmed with the pressure of the coronavirus outbreak not
because they did not know that the outbreak will hit them but because they were
ill-prepared on factors like PPE but also, they did not have enough personal to
absorb the pressure.
Suppliers of health workers will expect a boost in demand as
a result of the Covid 19 outbreak and also, the manufacturers of health
equipment.
Cosmetics Manufacturers
In just few days, hand sanitisers and disinfectants were
sold out in most supermarkets worldwide. Regular hand wash as been the
worldwide message and our hygiene is now more than ever a key factor to stop
the spread of the coronavirus. We should expect new products in the market as
the lock-down measures eases. I personally never really got use to the idea of a
hand cream. I have an oily skin and my hand is usually moist. However, I have
come to understand the need to have a hand sanitiser in the pocket when out and
about.
There’s already new products been sold in the high stores
now with the mixture of moisturiser and sanitiser. More of these products will
flood the market soon as we have more people go out of their homes. Like sanitisers, disinfectants are selling quickly in
stores. I expect more companies to move into this industry this year. Our hygiene
will be more important than it used to be and producers of products such as -
disinfectant cream, moisturisers, hand wash, sanitisers and other related
products will profit from this need.
Pharmaceutical Industry
You should not believe anything just because you read it
online. A report was going round as to why the coronavirus mortality rate is
higher in ethnic minority in countries like the US and UK linked to lack of
vitamin D. This has not been proven but it is true that a dark skin person will
spend more time than a light skin person in the sun to generate the amount of
vitamin d. And in current lock-down, more
people may to need to take vitamin d supplements to meet their daily vitamin
need.
The demand for Vitamin d, Paracetamol and other Vitamin
supplements will higher than it was before. More families are more cautious of
their health needs and the only known way to beat the coronavirus at the moment
is through our immune system. The demand for these products will definitely
profit the pharmaceutical industries.
Just few days ago Gilead Sciences, a pharmaceutical company
that developed Remdesivir, a drug that has been touted to speed up recovery of Covid-19, gave licenses to 5 pharmaceutical companies to produce the drug and
supply to about 127 countries. This is just of what it is come for
pharmaceutical companies. Even though there’s been a cry out by the public against
extortion by these companies, the most likely outcome is government subsidies
in places where health care is not free. Although it does appear that at this
stage of the pandemic, the cost of this drug will be fully absorbed by the
governments.
Print Industry
This is a surprise entry on my list. The print industry is
one of the sectors with little barrier entry and highly competitive. Many
companies have gone burst due to low profit margin as more customers are going
digital and electronic mail replaces paper mail. I do expect a boom for those
small-medium size firms who does signage.
When you go to your stores you see displayed information on
how things will be done, direction on a one-way system in place and so on. Some
markings are done on the floor as well on boards and this may be how we will do
our daily business for the next 18 months at least.
Delivery / Logistics
Amazon announced last month that it will hire about 75,000
more workers after initially filling 100,000 posts in March 2020. The number
includes both factory and driver workers. It is not only Amazon that has
experienced this surge in demand; courier and logistics companies have all had
a huge demand for their services.
Last month, I had to pick up my car which was about 25 miles
from home. It had been at a painter workshop for a couple of weeks. I had to
pay a logistics company to pick it for me. I did not want to risk using the
public transport and this was the safest way of getting my car. This is just
another example of how logistics will benefit from the social distancing
measures that will continue to be in place even as lock-down measures eases.
UkmotorDirectory, a website is solely for motor industry as also seen a surge in logistics business registration.
To sum it all up, there is uncertainty around the world due
to the coronavirus pandemic but these industries are most likely to see a surge
in business activities.
Comments
Post a comment