We recognize that we always have that responsibility, but even more so during challenging times like COVID-19.
With locations across North America, Samuel operates in many communities and we want to do what we can to protect them. It was important to us that we step up wherever we could to help fight this pandemic, and that’s exactly what we’ve done. We began by sharing an open letter to Global Manufacturers of Respiratory Systems and Healthcare Providers on March 21, offering our assistance through the Additive Manufacturing capabilities at our Burloak Technologies division.
Since then, we’ve begun work with the Canadian government, local healthcare specialists, colleges and universities to manufacture 15,000 face shields per week. We’re just getting geared up now and production will begin in two weeks.
We’re also doing our part to support efforts in the United States. Our Associated Tube Group has ramped up its production of tubing, to help support the need for more hospital beds, and our team at CAID Industries is exploring opportunities to support medical device companies with their production. Our US team has been approached with numerous other opportunities to utilize Samuel’s different business capabilities to lend further assistance. We are currently responding to a number of these.
We have been deemed an essential business and we are committed to doing our part to help our communities and support our customers in creating their important, and potentially lifesaving, products. Our facilities remain open. To ensure continuity of service and mitigate supply disruptions, we are conducting risk assessments and arranging for alternative sources, where possible. We are doing our best to maintain business as usual for our customers and our employees.
That said, the health and safety of our employees remains our number one priority at Samuel. We are taking every possible measure to ensure they’re safe. This includes working from home, if possible, segregating workers into teams for maximum social distancing and increasing our sanitization efforts across all facilities.
We’re proud to be a company that’s in a position to help, and we recognize the responsibility of being a critical link in the supply chain for many essential industries. We will continue to operate as normally as possible and look for other opportunities for our Samuel facilities to support the fight against COVID-19.
Stay safe.
Colin Osborne,
President & CEO
Samuel, Son & Co., Limited
