NEWS
PERNOD RICARD TEMPORARILY RELOCATES TOP EXECUTIVES FROM ITS HONG KONG OFFICE
By Susan Lewis
15-2-2022
Credit: David Mathews
French wine and spirits giant Pernod Ricard has asked top executives from its Hong Kong office to temporarily relocate outside the city amid increasingly strict COVID measures resulted from an outburst of Omicron cases.
Quoting two sources with knowledge of the issue, the Financial Times reported that Dubai is one of the relocation destinations which allow the management to continue to serve the Asian markets and be able to visit the company’s headquarters in Paris.
“All senior management were asked to relocate temporarily . . . (late) last year,” the Financial Times quoted one source as saying, adding that the flight bans and further restrictions on social distancing introduced in the city after Omicron cases started rising in December added urgency to the request.
“You need to travel to look after clients. When the rest of the world is opening up, it’s becoming difficult to justify (being based in Hong Kong),” the source told Financial Times.
Pernod Ricard declined to comment on the report.
Last week, the Financial Times reported that the Mandarin Oriental hotel group had also asked top executives to work outside Hong Kong because of the pandemic restrictions.
Hong Kong reported 2,701 confirmed cases on Monday, the highest since the start of this Omicron wave.
Despite the rapid surge in cases, the government has ruled out imposing full-fledged lockdown measures.
However, it announced over the weekend that a joint task force would be set up with mainland Chinese authorities to manage the outbreak, some fear that more stringent measures will be imposed soon.
Hong Kong follows China’s zero COVID policy very closely with one of the world’s strictest quarantine measures.
The city bans incoming flights from 9 countries including the USA and UK, and all arrivals are subject to hotel quarantine of up to three weeks. This policy has stranded Hong Kong-based executives and precluded visits from personnel from company headquarters.
Pernod Ricard employs 18,500 employees worldwide and only finished renovating its Hong Kong office in 2020.
Asia and emerging markets account for 42 percent of the Pernod Ricard’s sales, while China is an important growth market reporting 14 percent sales growth in the second half of last year.
(the writer can be contacted at: info@thewinechronicle.com)
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