Well. Here we are in late May and the world has certainly changed a lot – at least for now.
Its two months since we told you the Wiemann factory in Germany had been forced to close – and at roughly the same time of course, most furniture shops in the UK also had to shut. So, like many in the industry, we’ve spent the past few weeks preparing and planning for the day when life started to re-start.
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
I’m pleased to report that our factory in Germany re-opened a couple of weeks ago and since then we have received delivery in the UK of many outstanding orders. We’ve been working hard with our partners across the UK and Ireland who provide our Home Delivery and Installation service and I’m even more pleased to report that all of them will be ready to re-start work in conjunction with our retail customers by the beginning of June. For example, not only are they equipped with the right PPE, but each fitter is being given their own jerry can, soap and towel so they can wash their hands regularly.
Of course, all our plans put the health and safety of our workers as well as of our customers first and we are abiding rigorously to the government’s guidelines on safe working practices. All consumers will be contacted in advance about proposed arrangements to ensure they are happy for us to proceed. All our fitters are empowered to walk away from any situation if they don’t feel it is safe.
Like everyone else, we’re going to have to see how this goes: what sort of demand there is from consumers initially; how many shops do re-open in June. But we have been receiving some orders online even during lockdown – and the factory in Germany encouragingly reports a bounce back to around 80% of output compared with before lockdown.
So, fingers crossed we can all adapt to this rather strange new world for a months ahead we anticipate it might be in place. Let’s just say, I’m optimistic there is pent up demand out there!