17th March 2020: Protecting people sits at the heart of everything Filtermist International Limited and Filtermist Systems Limited do. With that ethos in mind, both companies have put a number of measures in place to ensure the safety of employees, customers and the wider community. As a company with a subsidiary in China, we have been monitoring the situation closely since the initial outbreak in January. We are following UK Government advice and continuing to operate as close to normally as possible until told otherwise.
Remote Working
Filtermist already has a number of colleagues who are set up for remote / home working and following yesterday’s Government directive, all colleagues who can work at home have been asked to do so. This will be extended to as many office-based staff as possible should a further Government directive make this necessary.
Health and Safety
Filtermist routinely uses hand sanitizer at all sites and additional stations have been located where required. Government advice on hand washing, as well as links to official information pages, has been emailed to all colleagues and displayed across all sites. Additional cleaning of bannisters and door handles is taking place on a daily basis across all Filtermist sites.
International Travel
All international travel has been postponed and employees have been sent links to website pages containing the latest travel advice from the UK Government.
Manufacturing Operations
Filtermist holds stocks of all raw materials and contingency plans are in place to keep operations functioning using a skeleton staff in the event of colleagues self-isolating due to illness.
Supply Chain
Our immediate suppliers are predominantly UK based companies meaning we have not been impacted by the situation in China, however we have actively sourced alternative suppliers for components that we have identified may originate from a supplier based in an area that has been locked-down. Filtermist holds stock of all fast-moving components and is confident that existing stocks will mitigate any impact on short-term disruption to the immediate supply chain.
Installations, Servicing and Maintenance
Filtermist’s team of Engineers are continuing to operate as normal where possible. They have been asked to implement additional hygiene measures in their vans including the use of antiviral surface wipes.
Kerstar vacuum cleaners
As of today (17th March 2020) the team in Northampton will not be servicing any industrial vacuum cleaners until further notice in an effort to protect the maintenance operatives. New machines will be delivered to customers in environments considered to be ‘high risk’ using a ‘hands-off’ approach.
External Sales Visits
Filtermist’s UK wide sales team will still visit customer sites if the customer is happy for them to do so. Individuals are also making additional use of technology and are available as usual via mobile phone, email and video conferencing software.
Visitors to Filtermist’s Sites
Filtermist respectively requests that anyone who has returned from a high-risk area, been in contact with someone with Coronavirus, or showing symptoms that they might have the virus, to postpone scheduled visits to all Filtermist sites.
If you would like any additional information please contact Johanna Morris, Filtermist’s Director of Group Shared Services: jo.morris@filtermist.com tel: 07712 326064.
As is obvious from the Government, there is an unknown element to this whole episode and the situation is changing on a daily basis. We will update this document as appropriate.
Thank you to all of our customers and suppliers for your continued support.