COVID-19 – Company operational statement

31 Mar 2020

Following the UK Government announcement on 23rd March, that all non-essential businesses must now close, VES have taken measures to ensure we comply with the Guidelines issued and remain operational.

Our main objective is to protect our staff, our customers and our supply chain in relation to COVID-19 epidemic. We have a duty of care to ensure that staff health and safety is of paramount importance - a safe working environment is a necessity for their well-being. We, at VES, feel that we have acted swiftly and decisively to protect our staff by deploying social separation measures and reacted positively to keep the business strong by changing the way we work on site, in our manufacturing facilities and across our offices. 

Government have enforced much more stringent shut down measures, these are causing a rippling effect across the nation. We have been closely following the Construction Industry's reaction since the shutdown, any decisions they make will clearly cascade down the supply chain effecting all of us. 

However, for Construction Projects, the Government has made it clear that construction and manufacturing are two key sectors that must continue working, a point emphasised by communications from secretary of state for Housing Robert Jenrick and under-secretary of state for business Nadhim Zahawi.

We have had numerous communications directly from our key Customers detailing the scaling back of their operations, even if they do indeed aim to remain open. We have also received a lot of communication from critical Vendors who are closing for a period of at least 3 weeks. VES has, therefore, made the tough decision to also scale back our operations for a period of 3 weeks, commencing Tuesday 31st March 2020.

We have scaled back our Site Engineering and Projects team diverting our resources to focusing on Critical Care work, and sites where the Safe Operating Procedures aligned to COVID-19 can be effectively applied.  

Our office-based staff have been working remotely since Tuesday 17th March and have navigated any challenges to continue to function as effectively as possible. However, as workload has reduced, we will be scaling back some of these operations to better suit the needs of our customers, whilst ensuring we remain a strong and robust business in the future.

We have been working hard to evaluate how we can effectively apply the Construction Leadership Council’s Site Operating Procedures across our manufacturing facilities, to ensure social distancing requirements are met and minimise the risk of the spread of infection. We have been able to implement changes in our procedures to ensure everyone at our facilities achieves these measures; the need to work two metres apart requires a lot more cooperation and we can only meet these guidelines with a reduced workforce.

We believe we can still provide effective support for critical Construction Projects during this scaled down period, although we understand the way we work has significantly changed and therefore we ask our Staff and Customers to work with us during this unprecedented time.

We feel communication is fundamental during these times, and will ensure any Customer, or member of our Supply Chain affected by our decisions are called individually so we can discuss the impact and plan together the support that can be provided.

We will keep you updated as regularly as we can during this scaled down operational period, and we appreciate your cooperation, understanding and loyalty during these challenging times.

We want our Staff and Customers to understand the status of our operations as the situation continues to develop over the longer term, therefore we will keep the communications around our operational capabilities live, which are detailed below:

Sales / Account Management	We have a reduced workforce, and your account may be dealt with by other members of our Sales teams, maintaining the same level of service as your usual representative.
Enquiries / Quotations	Our Sales team are at capacity to meet the current demand, albeit working remotely. Please direct enquiries via your local Sales representative, where it will be picked up, even if by an alternative member of staff. Alternatively use our main email address emailenquiries@ves.co.uk if required.
New Orders / General Processing	We are still accepting new orders and will process them as usual. Our operational team will discuss any Lead time impacts with you directly, if required
Design and Approvals	We have a workforce at capacity to meet the current demands and workflow.  We will still be looking to gain design approvals and support any technical questions or modifications required to your orders.
Manufacturing	We have scaled down our production in order to effectively apply the Construction Leadership Council’s Site Operating Procedures across all our manufacturing facilities. Any short-term delays to your deliveries will be discussed directly.
Projects	We will only be offering site works to critical sites, as we cannot guarantee the operational safety of our site times.  As the Industry adopts the Construction Leadership Council’s Site Operating Procedures, VES will scale back up our Projects team as the demand requires, and we can safely adhere to the guidelines.
After Sales and Technical Support	Our office based After Sales team are working and available for advice, support and arrange works for critical sites.

Updated: 31/03/2020