Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic [Abstract]

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic [Text Block]

2. Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic:

A novel strain of coronavirus (“COVID-19”) surfaced in late 2019 and has spread around the world, including to the United States and France. In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our business operations and caused a significant unfavorable impact on our results of operations.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic various national, state, and local governments where we, our suppliers, and our customers operate, have issued decrees prohibiting certain businesses from continuing to operate and certain classes of workers from reporting to work. As of the date of this filing, we have implemented travel restrictions, and we are following social distancing practices. In the U.S. and France, we are endeavoring to follow guidance from authorities and health officials including, but not limited to, requiring our personnel to wear masks and other protective clothing as appropriate, and implementing additional cleaning and sanitization routines at our distribution centers as the health and safety of our employees are paramount. Our teams are set up and now work from home and carry on business as efficiently as possible. Those decrees however, have resulted in a shutdown of a majority of retail stores selling fragrance products, a slowdown in air traffic, effecting our travel retail business, and supply chain disruption. Additionally, our distribution facilities have also experienced a short-term suspension of operations for COVID-19 employee health concerns.

The duration and intensity of this global health emergency and its related disruptions are uncertain. We anticipate that retail store closings, the slowdown in air traffic, potential supply chain disruptions and short-term suspensions of activities in our distribution centers will continue to unfavorably impact our business. We also anticipate significant challenges for the remainder of 2020 due to uncertain market conditions. We expect a larger net sales decline in the second quarter of 2020, as many retail stores in our major markets may remain closed for the entire period. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to high levels of unemployment and deteriorating economic conditions in many of the countries where our products are sold, forcing many consumers to limit discretionary purchases. We believe it is possible that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic could have a material adverse effect on the results of our operations, financial position and cash flows as of and for the year ending December 31, 2020.