PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2020

TOP TALK PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 09/20 www.petpla.net 12 John Galt, President and CEO, Husky, on his strategy for leading the company during the Covid-19 pandemic Protecting lives and livelihoods by Gabriele Kosmehl John Galt has 35 years of experience – 15 as CEO – at Husky Injection Molding Systems, a leading global supplier of a comprehensive range of injection moulding equipment, including machines, moulds, hot runners, auxiliaries and integrated systems. Leading the company through an unprecedented time, he and Husky have been able to draw on the experience the company gained during the global recession in 2008. Flexible and fast reactions to changes are part of coping with challenge. PETplanet: First, in this age of remote interviews, can we ask: Where are you right now? Are you in your of fi ce or are you working from home? John Galt: I am currently in our of fi ces located at Husky global head- quarters in Bolton, Ontario, Canada. I’ve been working from the of fi ce throughout the pandemic. PETplanet: Husky is a global company with operations in China, among other countries. How did your Chinese colleagues experience the outbreak of coronavirus at the begin- ning of the year, and what information was coming through to your head- quarters from them? John Galt: As we learned of the outbreak in China, we immediately sprang into action to implement the necessary procedures to ensure the safety and protection of both our cus- tomers and employees. The efforts paid off. We experienced very few Covid-19 cases, everyone has recov- ered and, through global capacity sharing, the impact to production was minimal. PETplanet: What did these safety protocols look like? What employee protection measures have you imple- mented in your workplaces and what investments were required? John Galt: We have been actively following the guidance of the WHO, CDC and other local govern- ment authorities. Our global campus management teams assembled a task force to oversee the implementation of various safety measures to pro- tect our team members. We moved immediately to a partial ‘work from home’ (WFH) structure. We have installed new hand sanitising sta- tions, fl oor decals, additional signage reminding team members of safety protocols, installed plexiglass divid- ers where applicable, and provided all team members with two cloth face coverings. While these costs were not anticipated, the investment is impor- tant to ensure the ongoing safety and protection of our team members. PETplanet: Did the measures also have an impact on production output and ef fi ciency, either positive or negative? John Galt: It took a short period of time to adjust and adapt to working remotely for some of our of fi ce team members. We also experienced some short term shut downs, but through leveraging our global footprint cus- tomer commitments remained largely unaffected. For our manufacturing team members, the additional health and safety measures were welcomed and seen as a positive step to manag- ing through a challenging time. PETplanet: John, you have now been with Husky for 35 years. Have you ever experienced a situation simi- lar challenging to this pandemic? John Galt: The situation we are now experiencing is rather unique, in the fact that we have a responsibility to protect both the lives and liveli- hoods of all stakeholders. There are, however, lessons we could borrow on from our management of the global recession we experienced in 2008. The global economic crisis from the pandemic and impact on our lives will be felt for many months and perhaps years to come. One theme that’s common to both of these events is the priority the company has to place on being agile. We’ve been working non-stop to enhance remote service capabilities, increased capacity in key tooling manufacturing streams to meet the demand for Covid-related contain- ers, dispensing systems, test kits and other critical medical components. PETplanet: Has the pandemic led to working time restrictions or even redundancies in your company? John Galt: As an essential ser- vice to the medical, beverage and food packaging industries, we play a key role in providing solutions to our customers at a time when they needed us most. As the pandemic has spread globally we continue to actively manage our workforce. And, I’m pleased to say, our overall staf fi ng and working hours remain relatively unchanged. By adopting the required protocols from the WHO, CDC and local government authorities, we con- tinue to ensure the safety and protec- tion of our team members and custom- ers, while still supplying the essential services our customers need. PETplanet: In many countries, people are hoarding water in PET bot- tles and production in spring was run-