In light of the rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus, costume and party company Smiffys is reassuring trade customers about the steps it has been taking to ensure business is able to continue while also looking after the welfare of its team and protecting its customers.
An industry-wide statement issued by director Dominique Peckett read:
“As a family business, we take the welfare of all of our staff very seriously. R H Smith continues to adhere to and follow all the latest Government advice about Coronavirus (COVID-19).
We are currently following government advice and are practicing home-working for all of our sales and administration team. We have also taken the decision to reduce the working hours for all of our team, partly to reflect less through-put, but also to reflect private needs during these unprecedented times.
Our business is well prepared to cope with the various possible effects of the virus due to continual investment in our IT and telephone infrastructure over the years. This means our sales and administration teams have the flexibility to work from home without compromise to data security (GDPR), by connecting our phone systems to staff remotely. We will continue to provide the Smiffy’s customer service experience with no compromise to security or quality, We are confident we can cover calls and queries across all departments during this crisis period, whether working from the offices or home.
Our fantastic warehouse team can’t work from home – so it is business as usual, as far as possible. Additional measures are in place to minimise contact between all teams and locations. With immediate effect, all shipments from Neuss, Germany, are suspended. All future orders and shipments to Europe will continue to be dispatched out of the UK facility until further notice.
Additional measures are now in place to minimise contact between the team for those working in the business locations. Rigorous sanitation measures have been undertaken at all warehouse locations (including UK, Netherlands, Germany, Australia and China) to ensure the environments are cleaned thoroughly and frequently, and that all team members are following government advice on necessary hygiene protocols, practicing safe working and social distancing and regular hand washing. We have also introduced infra-red thermometers as a part of all our office and site risk assessment routine.
This is a challenging time for so many people globally, and we take the health and wellbeing of our staff and our customers, very seriously. But also that of the wider community. We are all in this together! Please keep in touch, even just for a friendly chat in these increasingly strange times.
Keep safe!
The Peckett Family and the team at Smiffys
