A customer shops for calendars at a bookstore in HCM City last year. — Photo of nguoitieudung.vn

HCM CITY — Calendar producers in HCM City have resumed work after the city lifted its lockdown to ensure they can supply the domestic and foreign markets for the upcoming New Year.

When the lockdown was in place, most suspended operations since they could not manage to house their workers on-site.

They also had difficulty getting raw materials since paper and accessories suppliers had difficulty transporting goods to the city.

Some did get fully vaccinated employees to work on-site after September 15 to start meeting orders and prepare for normal production after the city eased social distancing.

Nguyễn Minh Tuấn, deputy general director of An Hảo Calendar Company, said his company had suspended operations for many months when the city locked down to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.

Now, with the city reopening, it “is trying to catch up with the production schedule to ensure supply to the market at the year-end.”

The calendar market usually starts buzzing in mid-October, when producers start supplying customers and also have to meet large orders from big businesses in the domestic market and export to countries with large populations of Vietnamese expatriates.

The most important task is printing sheets of block calendars after obtaining the licence, and companies in the industry said this had not been done for many months, and it would be necessary to speed it up now.

This required recruiting seasonal employees for production and transportation, Tuấn said.

“There are certain stages that need seasonal staff, especially during the rush production period. But we still do not know what requirements we will have to meet when we recruit seasonal workers.”

Many calendar producers have made plans based on the city’s gradual opening schedule to both ensure safety and timely supply of goods to the market.

“Our company has a roadmap with three phases,” Tuấn said.

“Thirty per cent of our employees returned to work on October 1. Although we want more workers, safety is very important. We are rushing production to promptly supply the market.” — VNS