24 April 2020

With the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continuing to cause a global crisis, and with the UK Government extending the ‘lockdown’ period until at least the 11 May 2020, the Zytronic Directors have had to take further steps to protect its employees and the longer term sustainability of the business.

Therefore, in addition to the distancing, hygiene and changed working practices implemented several weeks ago, the UK manufacturing operation will now enter a partial furlough period beginning on Monday 27 April, which will last until at least 18 May 2020. This means that a significant proportion of Zytronic’s UK employees (production and office) will be furloughed and therefore be non-operational. At such time as the Directors believe necessary to restart the facilities towards fuller operations (which we consider to be not before the 18th May), personnel will be brought back from furlough at a rate commensurate to meet achievable demands.

It is the Directors intentions to keep enough UK employees on site and working-from-home to maintain an effective technical support structure and operational level consistent with manufacturing and dispatching finished product during this period, dependent upon:

1. Having approval from the UK Government to do so
2. Being able to source raw materials
3. Having carriers able to collect orders
4. Receiving enough customer orders to operate efficiently

Customers should continue to place new orders as usual, but as a result of our reduced operations, lead times will be temporarily extended by at least 3 weeks beyond those normally achieved and until such time as we are fully operational again (based upon the 4 criteria above). There is also likely to be a delay in communicating order acknowledgements due to the reduced staffing levels.

Relevant Zytronic sales points of contact will be contacting customers shortly to advise of any change in planned dispatch dates for existing acknowledged orders once our production planning team have reviewed and re-planned the manufacturing schedule.

The Directors continue to closely monitor the situation and will review the Company’s policies in line with the latest UK Government regulations and advice.

Thank you for your patience and support during this exceptionally difficult and unprecedented global pandemic.

Regards,

Ian Crosby
Sales & Marketing Director