'This is a war and we want to survive,' says Polish retailer

Polish fashion retailers may not survive the coronavirus crisis if the government, banks and shopping mall owners do not help them bear the costs, a lobby group said on Friday, as Poland closed non-essential shops to stop the spread of the virus.

A new lobby group set up by the retail industry said it has asked the state to help pay out salaries, shopping mall owners to stop taking rents and banks to suspend loan payments. The group says it represents 100 companies and that 200,000 jobs directly depend on their survival.

"This is not even a crisis, it is difficult to name it. It is unlike anything that has happened before....This is a war and we want to survive. I do not care what the financial results will be," Marek Piechocki, Chief Executive at Poland's biggest fashion retailer LPP told Rzeczpospolita daily.

He said LPP, a home-grown rival to the likes of H&M and Inditex, had enough resources to continue paying salaries for the next 4-6 months. Before the crisis it had hoped to reach revenue of 10.5 billion zlotys (2.1 billion pounds) this year.

Tomasz Ciapala, the CEO and majority owner of Lancerto, a men's suit maker, said that many workers in the industry are paralysed with fear about their jobs.
"Our union comprises mostly family businesses. Most of our employees, who have been with us for a long time, are scared. This has wide social effects.
Mental illness, depression, suicides - these are all side effects of joblessness," Ciapala told a videconference on Friday.

Pawel Kaplon, a partner at Paan Capital private equity fund, has compared the functioning of fashion retailers to a large-scale restaurant which has hired suppliers and staff and bought products to prepare dishes for the next 100 days. And now has to shut down.

"We have done the cooking for the next half a year, we have payments ahead and we have nowhere to get the cash flow from," Kaplon told the same conference.
Poland's parliament is expected to adopt on Friday a package of legislation designed to help the economy and various industries survive the coronavirus crisis.

"The shopping malls, banks and us should participate in these costs together ...as in the end each of us will win when this tsunami is over," said Igor Klaja, the founder of popular sports wear brand 4F.