Panini on COVID-19: Printing has stopped but not production

Panini America's Dallas, Texas-based operation is working through the COVID-19 pandemic -- at home -- but noted in a Friday-afternoon announcement that the companies it uses for printing and packaging in the area were not, however, online.

That could lead to product delays at some point but none were noted at this time.

Here's its statement in full ...

"We hope that all of you are safe and healthy as we all navigate through this COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to provide all of you with a brief update on Panini America. First, we are all well and still operating.

"Due to a number of systems we put in place across all departments and prior to government declarations including local and state 'shelter-in-place' orders in the State of Texas, our business continues to operate across all departments -- albeit not in a traditional business setting of sitting in a building together, but rather remotely in 'work-from-home' scenarios and lots of interaction via video meetings, allowing us to continue to prepare and develop our collections.

"Our product development, design, editorial, sales, online-sales and shipping, marketing, acquisitions, customer service and accounting teams are all working remotely. We continue to develop and produce products for upcoming releases, however, due to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive shelter-in-place order for the state, issued on Thursday, April 2, our third-party print facility has been temporarily halted.

"As we all know, during this time the situation and government response to COVID-19 has and continues to evolve. We want to assure you that Panini America is doing all it can during this time to continue to help sports fans and collectors take solace in collecting cards and interacting with friends and other collectors online and in gatherings of 10 or less."

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Panini's world headquarters is based on Modena, Italy, which has been dramatically affected by the pandemic. Meanwhile, the U.S. operation is the home to creation of its exclusive trading card lines for the NFL and NBA as well as offerings for hockey and baseball under limited licensing as well as a number of non-sports and gaming entities.

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