Editor’s note: This is part of a series exploring how Northeast Ohio entrepreneurs and small businesses have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic and their plans for moving forward.
Video footage and photographs provided by Ned Sanders, Matt O'Donnell, and Greg Knowlton of Cleveland Menu.
Makers: Gerry Ramella, Jim Ramella, Patrick Ramella
Business: Cleveland Menu, a menu design and printing company
How have you adapted your business in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic?
Gerry: My father Julius started our company in 1930, and we are primarily a manufacturer of menus. We do menus for restaurants, hotels, resorts, casinos, and cruise ships. So needless to say, the COVID-19 has impacted our business slightly in the standpoint that we don't have any customers. So that being said, we do have a manufacturing plant here and we're very blessed and fortunate that we do everything internally, we don't really outsource anything. So we have equipment, we have supply chain, and we have technical people that can produce things. Now, we’ve really regenerated our manufacturing process to now produce these DuroShields.
The DuroShield is one version of plastic face shields now manufactured by Cleveland Menu. [Cleveland Menu]
What were some immediate changes you saw in your company?
Patrick: I think one thing that's very different for us right now is, we’re used to being traveling salesman. We're used to literally being on the road two to three weeks a month. Ninety percent of our business is outside of Ohio. So we're used to spending our weeks on the road, meeting with clients all over the country. Now, we're obviously confined to our plants. So it's very different.
The factory floor is much quieter these days at Cleveland Menu. [Ned Sanders / Cleveland Menu]
What kind of impact have the shutdowns had on your workforce?
Jim: We did have 90 employees come March 1st. We're down to about 30 employees now. Because number one, the governor’s stay-at-home orders, but number two, we don't have any menu orders right now. It's few and far between, so you don't have the business to support a full staff of 90 employees. But, with the 30 employees that we have right now, producing these shields is what's been able to keep them on and more importantly, for us to pay the bills right now. And we did just successfully receive the [Paycheck Protection Program] loan. We didn't get it on the first round. We were one of the many companies that didn't, but we did get it on the second round.
All employees wear PPE while assembling face shields in the factory. [Ned Sanders / Cleveland Menu]
Elastic strings are attached to a version of the face shields. [Ned Sanders / Cleveland Menu]
