The masquerade

Back in February 2020 – when getting hold of masks had not yet become an issue in Switzerland – Adrian Klaus wanted to find out how many masks were in SEM’s inventory. “We had between 10,000 and 15,000 in stock, but needed a lot more,” he remembers. The crisis unit, which had been established in the meantime, decided SEM needed one million masks. Adrian Klaus therefore began searching, which was not an easy task because masks were either in short supply or sold out. “After an extensive search the masks finally began arriving in batches, but there was a run on them by the staff.” The same applied to disinfectant. “We just bought what we could. Some of the material was held up at customs,” says Klaus, describing the situation at the time. When the situation eased off in the summer Klaus was able to increase his stock to 200,000, and there the inventory has remained until now. Looking back, he can now say: “Fortunately we didn’t overreact and pay for masks up front.”