With the steadily increasing incidence of the COVID-19 virus in the UK and beyond, RWC is closely monitoring the situation and evaluating the impact it will have on our employees, customers, operations and supply chain.

We are closely following governmental advice on medical, social and commercial matters to best protect all those we work with.

RWC is still operational as we provide plumbing and water delivery products for essential trades that are critical to maintaining public health and sanitation. We are supplying products and components to hospitals, as well as medical and healthcare manufacturers to help them respond to the COVID-19 crisis. However, we are maintaining only the minimum number of personnel on site for manufacturing and distribution operations.

We primarily supply hardware stores which are on the list of specific retail stores which should remain open (as set out in the latest government guidelines). Without the production and distribution of these types of products, there could be shortages across the UK and Europe that may result in putting our water supply infrastructure at risk, and thus, the health and safety of the public.

The health and safety of our employees and our customers is a priority and we have undertaken several measures to minimise the impact:

• Improved social distancing of our employees on site to reduce the spread of any infection;
• Utilising remote working technologies for office based and other key staff where commercially practical;
• Significantly enhanced cleaning regime in all our facilities;
• Staff education about minimising possible transmission of the virus and appropriate action to take if infection is suspected;
• External meetings and travel have been suspended, in favour of teleconferencing;
• Providing technical product advice and support over the phone or via video calls to those that need help while on site.
• Reviewing and revising Business Continuity Plans to reflect likely scenarios, such as planning for specialist ‘deep cleaning’ of any facilities that require it.

We are regularly reviewing these processes in line with the evolving impact of the virus and will continue to update and refine our plans accordingly.

As well as these immediate actions we are assessing the full extent of the longer-term impact, while working to prioritise production to restock vital products that are most critical to protecting sanitation, health and wellbeing.

We are also monitoring the development in the logistics market and actively working with our internal distribution fleet, third party shippers and freight forwarders to ensure products can be delivered safely when and where necessary.

For more information, please email covid19emea(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)rwc.com