From Buffalo News: https://buffalonews.com/2020/04/30/buffalo-games-works-on-a-new-puzzle-how-to-get-ready-to-reopen/
Like many small business owners, Nagendra Raina has been frustrated for weeks at not being able to maintain his company’s production under the governor’s shutdown order.
He’s also, well, puzzled.
After all, Raina reasons, his company, Buffalo Games, is the leading manufacturer of jigsaw puzzles in North America. And doing large and complicated puzzles has quickly emerged as one of the most popular – and safest – activities that people can do while they’re staying put at home to avoid the coronavirus pandemic.
“The demand for our product is through the roof,” Raina said.
Plus, he says, his operation has a large enough facility – and a small enough workforce – that maintaining social distance isn’t a problem. Even so, “we were deemed to be nonessential,” Raina mused ruefully.
“It is what it is,” he said.
Now, though, he’s eyeing Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s plan for restarting the economy with eagerness, hoping to be part of the first phase that would include construction and manufacturing. That’s essential to remaining competitive while his rivals internationally are still producing, he said.
It’s a process that manufacturers across the Buffalo Niagara region will be watching closely as they make their own preparations to resume production under rules and guidelines that almost certainly will be more restrictive than before the outbreak and require changes in operations.
At Buffalo Games, Raina and his team are already taking steps to prepare their production and warehouse facilities to prove they can meet the standards set by Cuomo.