Ref: FV/COVID19/UPDATE Date: 12th May 2020

Fort Vale would like to take this opportunity to update our colleagues, customers and suppliers on the situation we currently find ourselves in. Due to the ongoing and ever-changing developments with the global pandemic relating to the COVID-19 Coronavirus we feel it is appropriate to keep everyone informed as much as possible.

 

UK Position (12/5/20)
The UK government this weekend laid out plans for easing of lockdown restrictions. This will be a three-phase plan executed over the next two to three months, all depending on how the virus is managed throughout this period.
The government have instructed the British public to only leave the house for the following reasons:

 

► shopping

► no limit on exercise each day, for example a run, walk, or cycle – alone or with members of your household
► any medical need, including to donate blood, avoid or escape risk of injury or harm, or to provide care or to help a vulnerable person
► travelling for work purposes and to spend time in parks or beauty spots, as long as social distancing can be maintained

 

The guidance around employees going to work has been updated is as follows:

Manufacturing and construction should return to work wherever possible, as long as social distancing can be maintained

 

Fort Vale Position (12/5/20)
Fort Vale are working with UK Government and World Health Organisation guidelines and have taken measures to reduce the impact and risk of the spread of the virus within our organisation. We have implemented and trialled home working to allow for business continuity where necessary and possible. We have marked out appropriate spacing on the floors to assist with social distancing. Sanitising activities are on-going, PPE has been issued to employees and business travel and on-site visits restricted. Many other measures have also been implemented to include staggered shift and break times, additional clocking in machines to reduce queuing at certain times of the day and supporting vulnerable employees wherever possible.
For office staff, encouragement of use of technology such as Microsoft Teams to keep in contact with customers, suppliers and colleagues has been instrumental in keeping in regular communication.

As restrictions are being eased in many countries, we have not found any major difficulties in our supply chain due to having alternative options should we have needed them. We have only encountered a few issues with exports due to the limited number of flights, however more and more cargo plane space is becoming available as the restrictions in various countries begins to ease.

As of this week manual thermal temperature checks and COVID testing has been taking place on a daily basis and moving forward, Fort Vale are investing in automated thermal scanning to allow temperature checks at entrances to buildings

We will continue to keep you our valued customers, suppliers and business partners up to date on progress of any enquiries and production orders as best we can in these difficult times.

At this time, we are fully operational with a full complement of staff at both the UK and Shanghai factories. Our satellite offices around the world are also fully staffed to help with customer enquiries.
We hope everyone remains safe and healthy in these testing times.

Graham Blanchard
Global Sales & Marketing Director