John Stergides, the man behind the industry innovator Electrocoin, talks about lockdown – or not in his case, reopening and an industry that needs to reset the agenda on stakes an prizes.

What are your plans in terms of re-opening, in particular the timeline and measures you’re undertaking to be ready?

We have remained open during the lockdown albeit with limitations in order to be able to continue serving our customers and suppliers and will continue to do so.

For us it is not a re -opening but a continuation of business.

We hope by staying open, it will put us in a better position in the long term.

The government has laid out its guidelines for businesses to re-open. Which ones are you concerned about?

We are looking and evaluating the guidelines that have been set out, and we are going to use accordingly and adapt to the conditions to fit with our business.

There’s so much talk about “the new normal”. What will the new normal be for you and your business going forward?

For us there is no new normal as we kept going and are flexible enough to be able to adapt to all conditions and I’m sure we will succeed at the end.

What have been your highs and lows of lockdown?

We did not have highs and lows, just lows from the lockdown. But we are very optimistic that we will see better conditions and better days ahead.

I’m sure the seaside arcades, bowling centres, pubs, holidays parks etc will have a mini boom and this will continue later into the year.

For example, when you are in an aeroplane, you are waiting and are anxious until it lands, thereafter everyone’s first priority is to get out of the aeroplane and airport and get to their final destination whether it’s for business, home or holiday.

No one stays at the airport upon arriving, even for a coffee, its a rush to get out.

As the majority have been at home during the lockdown, people are anxious to go enjoy themselves after missing out during this lockdown period and will rush out to go to the seaside, bowling centres, holiday parks, pubs etc.

Business optimism is understandably fragile at the moment.

What do you think the industry will need to overcome the huge challenges it faces over the next few years?

The industry needs a mini boom to be able to survive along with new ideas and new machines.

The industry will need help from the government to be able to develop ideas based on the existing law.

To keep up with market trends, low stake machines and other electronic entertainment devices require cashless payment just like other industries.

This way, it will breathe new life to help restart manufacturing as it’s the only way to restart the industry with new products which will help everybody from pubs to entertainment centres.

Coinslot – June 12th – June 18th 2020 – Issue 2685 – Page 30