PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2020

TOP TALK PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 06/20 www.petpla.net 14 The times they are a-changin’ by Heike Fischer One lesson you learn in the school of journalism, the one thing to be avoided at all costs, do not even think about - conducting an interview mainly via email. You lose the personal contact, the special atmosphere, the spontaneity in the course of the interview. But the current situation is teaching us all to rethink and what was previously unthinkable has now become the new reality. PETplanet spoke to a long-time friend, Alan Tolley, Managing Direc- tor of R&D/Leverage Europe. He is located in the UK, one of the countries most affected by the Covid 19 pan- demic. We asked him for an assess- ment of the economic situation in his manufacturing plant, how their busi- ness in the US is being affected, and what steps his company is taking to adapt to the new conditions. PETplanet: Alan, how are things with you at the moment? How are people in the UK coping with the Covid-19 pandemic? Alan: At the moment it is quite surreal living in the United King- dom where life goes on as normal with migrating birds returning to our shores, trees waking up after winter and flowers coming into bloom - and then you turn on the news and hear that hundreds of people have died the previous day from Covid-19. Thank- fully the area where R&D/Leverage is located have been spared any major outbreak so all our staff are healthy and at work. Restrictions have made day to day life very different but it appears most people are coping with the pandemic well. PETplanet: In your view, how is the UK economy generally reacting to the crisis and more specifically what is the mood in the beverage and pack- aging industry? Alan: I believe the UK has handled the pandemic reasonably well in some areas but average at best in other areas, the United Kingdom Govern- ment promptly introduced a Furlough scheme to shield a large part of the United Kingdom population from losing their jobs but the question will be what happens when the Furlough scheme ends and the unemployment numbers increase. My concern was that we would see a closing down on all future project developments but quite the opposite has happened, we anticipated orders for hand sanitiser, hand soap and disinfectant bottle orders but we are receiving orders for personal care, home products and cosmetic projects. PETplanet: What changes have you had to make to your daily routine? Are you having to work from home? Alan: In line with the United King- dom Government guidelines we have some of our employees working from home, we have also introduced a three shift pattern, mornings, afternoons and nights to reduce the number of staff we have on site at any given time to assist in the social distancing guidelines. One of our biggest challenges is to ensure the staff adhere to the regular hand washing followed by hand sanitiser and keeping to the 2 meter social distanc- ing rule when life appears to be the old normal but we are in different times with this being the world’s new normal. PETplanet: Can you tell us about the situation in your production plant? Are all your employees working on site or have you had to develop flex- ible working models? Alan: Pretty much covered this earlier but at the moment we have a full healthy work force, we have implemented a three shift system to assist with social distancing which we have found to be more efficient for manufacturing. We have staff working from home where it is possible but as a manufacturing company there are limited numbers that can do this. One big difference is in the old normal we would have on average three differ- ent company representatives on site to oversee their tooling being quali- fied in our Product Solution Labora- tory, currently no visitors are allowed on site so everything is being done via media or physically sending sam- ples of the bottles for approval along with the inspection reports. PETplanet: Has R&D Leverage been able to maintain regular produc- tion? Have there been any problems with suppliers? Alan: We have been very lucky that most of our suppliers have stayed open and a few that closed we managed to find alternatives quickly without impacting on our abil- ity to continue manufacturing. PETplanet: What feedback are you getting from your customers about the current situation? Have you been able to offer any special services to mitigate the effects of the crisis? Alan: Initially there was an urgency from our global customers for hand sanitiser, hand soap and dis- infectant bottles with this first wave we supplied tooling with a 4 week delivery, we now receiving orders for a broader range of products with longer lead times. PETplanet: R&D Leverage is also a big player in the States. How do your colleagues in the US see the situation as regards business?