Chinanews.com, March 31st, "Dior brand hand sanitizer", "generic brand ventilator" and "Sharp brand mask" ... The combination of these brands and products will inevitably make people feel a little bit offensive. However, all this has become a reality.

With the spread of the epidemic, masks, hand soap, and ventilator have become new "luxury goods" in people's eyes. In order to alleviate the huge gap between epidemic prevention materials and medical materials, many luxury goods and automobile manufacturers have taken action to produce "big-name" epidemic prevention materials across borders.

Local time March 22, 2020, the cherry blossoms in Ueno Park, Tokyo, Japan, many tourists wear masks to stroll through the cherry trees.

LV produces hand sanitizer, Sharp produces masks ...

These big-name epidemic prevention products make netizens shout "Want to buy"

In order to solve the shortage of hand sanitizers and masks during the epidemic, manufacturers such as Dior, Givenchy in Europe, Sharp in Asia, etc. have "fired up" to accelerate the production of anti-epidemic materials.

Since March, there has been a surge in the purchase of sanitizing hand sanitizers in many European countries, and their prices have risen. They are called "liquid gold."

As early as two weeks ago, LV parent company, global luxury goods giant LVMH Group, has asked the group's brands Dior, Guerlain and Givenchy to make full use of its existing perfume and cosmetics production lines to invest in hand sanitizer production.

Some netizens said that they really wanted a bottle of Dior Hand Sanitizer. Image source: social media screenshot

In order to quickly produce finished products, LVMH directly used the packaging of Dior's personal care products. The pressing head of each bottle of hand sanitizer was engraved with Dior's iconic "CD" two letters.

After these "big-name" hand sanitizers were exposed on social media, many netizens said they "want to buy." However, LVMH said that all hand sanitizers will be provided free of charge to French health agencies and the European hospital system.

In addition to hand sanitizers, masks are also one of the most in demand today. In response to the shortage of masks, Sharp, a well-known Japanese electrical appliance manufacturer, has begun to use its clean room for LCD monitors to produce non-woven masks.

Japanese netizens said that the mask boxes produced by Sharp are "feeling like home appliances." Image source: social media screenshot

After seeing samples of Sharp masks, the response of Japanese netizens seemed a bit "deviant", and their attention was focused on the mask boxes. A lot of netizens said, "Sharp mask boxes really feel like home appliances." "The boxes are so cute."

Regarding how to distribute output masks, Sharp said it would give them to the Japanese government as a priority, but also sell them on its online store.

In addition, a number of big-name companies have already or are in production of epidemic prevention materials: Tesla has started to make its own protective masks and hand sanitizers; Balenciaga and Saint Laurent, both of which are owned by Kering, also said that once the government approves, the factory will Invested in the manufacture of medical protective clothing to meet the high demand of French hospitals during the epidemic.

Defuse urgent need

GM, Ford ventilator may be available

— "I want 30,000 ventilators. You only delivered 400? Are you serious?"

— "I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators."

This "dialogue" between New York State Governor Cuomo and US President Trump also reflected the serious contradiction between the current supply and demand of ventilator in the United States.

As of the evening of March 29, local time, the number of confirmed cases of New Coronary Pneumonia in the United States has increased to more than 140,000, and more than 2,500 deaths have occurred. Among them, more than 30,000 cases were diagnosed in New York City and the hospital was overcrowded. There are only a thousand ventilators in New York City, and some hospitals in the city have tried to share a ventilator with two patients.

On March 27, Trump used the National Defense Production Act to require automakers such as GM and Ford to produce ventilators as soon as possible in response to the epidemic. The law provides that the President has the right to require private companies to produce defense-related products in an emergency and to control the distribution of these products.

Data sheet: Ford Motor Company production workshop.

Earlier, negotiations between the US federal government and General Motors on the production of ventilators had been broken due to price issues, but after Trump offered the "killing strategy" of the "National Defense Production Law", GM and Ford quickly responded on the same day.

GM states that it has worked day and night with Seattle-based Ventec Life Systems to meet demand; Ford also said that it has formed a joint team with GE Healthcare to find solutions to accelerate ventilator production.

The analysis points out that the threshold for ventilator manufacturing is high, and the output of professional manufacturers is far from meeting current needs. In this regard, car companies have a unique advantage in "changing jobs."

"As long as you have the right tools, the car factory can theoretically carry out any project production. Ventilator products are already there, there is no need to redesign, only the output needs to be increased, so it is not difficult for the car factory." Senior analysis of the automotive industry Said Bill Russo.

Affected by epidemic control, vehicles on the Champs-Elysées in Paris, France are extremely scarce. Photo by Li Yang, China News Agency

Market downturn, factory shutdown

Manufacturers switch to anti-epidemic is expected to achieve a win-win situation

For some enterprises, "cross-border transfer" may be a last resort.

A study released by consulting firm Bain shows that in the first quarter of 2020, global luxury profits and sales will decline sharply. The worst possibility is that the overall market downturn lasts for a long time, and sales are down 30% to 35% year-on-year.

Car companies have been more affected. At present, Ford's plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico have ceased production; production of cars such as GM and Fiat Chrysler has also stalled.

At this time, "changing careers" in a timely manner, using the existing production lines and producing their own epidemic prevention materials, can not only contribute to society, but also play a positive role in resolving the predicament faced by enterprises in the epidemic situation.

However, there are many problems with such cross-borders. Take the "GM" ventilator as an example. On March 27, Trump disclosed that GM originally promised to provide 40,000 respirators soon, but now says it will only provide 6,000 later in April.

According to media reports, even for a professional medical device manufacturer, the production of a ventilator may take up to 40 days. It is difficult for auto makers to exceed this speed without government support. Product approval is also subject to FDA approval, which may take longer.

Cross-border production may be the last resort for brands to help themselves, but at this moment the "change of career" as a type of emergency and mutual assistance is worthy of reference by the international community. As WHO Director-General Tan Desai pointed out, strengthening global collaboration is the key to combating the new crown pneumonia epidemic. Now is the time for solidarity. Governments, the private sector and the entire world should move together.