Impact of Covid-19 on wine SMEs in Greece

Abstract

The coronavirus Covid-19 has created an unprecedented situation on a global scale that has affected significantly every spectrum of socio-economic areas. The SMEs hold the most important position within the Greek economy due to employment, value added and contribution to the GDP and they are positioned in hostile conditions due to the situation created by Covid-19 and measures necessary to manage it. In the present study an effort was made to analyze the effects of Covid-19 situation and restrictions on the SMEs that operate in the wine sector in Greece. The research project involved the quantitative research method and distributed questionnaires to individuals who are involved in wine SMEs. The questionnaire aimed to quantify the effects of Covid-19 on these enterprises and evaluate these effects in specific aspects that affect the performance. Descriptive and correlation analyses revealed a series of findings that provide with implications and contribution to academic and policy making aspects. The results showed that the financial performance of the wine SMEs in Greece experienced a decline during 2020 in the majority of cases. However, the SMEs with higher production capacities are shown to have fared better in coping with these challenges. Additionally, the costs of operations were shown to have increased, especially for the SMEs that had a higher level of revenues. The most significant challenge for the SMEs is found to be the access to workforce and the difficulties associated with this issue. On the other hand, the situation of Covid-19 did not affect the willingness or improvement level in aspects like the utilization of technology and remote working as well as the environmental issues.