With the impact of Coronavirus continuing to cause uncertainty and disruption we would like to take this opportunity to inform you of the strong measures we at Lohmann are taking to ensure both the health and safety of our employees and business partners and to maintain our business activities.
1. General
First and foremost, the measures we are taking to ensure protection for our employees and business partners against infection are in accordance with the recommendations of the Robert-Koch-Institute [Germany] as well as the guidance and decrees being made by Governments around the world and local authorities. Our employees have been briefed on the early symptoms of Coronavirus and have been instructed to stay home and consult their healthcare provider if they exhibit the warning signs. Sanitising products are provided throughout our factories and offices and we are encouraging all employees to be vigilant about frequent hand washing. To minimise any potential spread of Coronavirus we have, for non-production employees, plans for remote working in place that can immediately be executed if needed. Where employees are working in our factories or offices we are providing clear instructions to avoid close contact and not to congregate in groups of more than ten people. Until further notice we have severely restricted all non-essential on-site meetings, both internal and those with suppliers and customers. Meetings with other business partners are suspended for the time being. We understand all the efforts our customers do to prevent the spreading of Coronavirus such as cancellation of meetings and we fully support these decisions. Therefore to ensure supply and technical support we can offer telephone conference facilities - such as Microsoft Teams – or other virtual technologies as an alternative to face-to-face meetings.
2. Supply
Our contractual obligations as a supplier remain valid with products being supplied in accordance with our order confirmations. Whilst we are currently not experiencing problems that may impact our ability to supply customers on-time, we are conscious that in these exceptional times our delivery performance may be affected. We are in close contact with our key raw material suppliers and will notify our customers should we anticipate or experience any risks or changes that will affect our ability to supply. To date there are few confirmed cases of Coronavirus within the Lohmann Group, but rest assured that as a global organisation with manufacturing sites around the world we have contingency plans in place and are in a strong position to react quickly should the need arise. As we do recognise a higher volatility in customer demand, we kindly ask you to provide any information on product demand so we can adjust our capacity accordingly. Your input to our operations team is highly appreciated.
3. Customer Meetings
Visits by Lohmann employees to our customer sites will be subject to the rules and procedures as defined by local authorities.
All of Lohmann's customer-facing employees are equipped with IT tools, such as Microsoft Teams, therefore allowing for meetings to be held remotely. Should they be required we are also able to offer live streams directly from our technical and production facilities. In the event the presence of a Lohmann employee at a customer site is required, then we will check in advance that our employee is fit to travel and has not within the past 14 days visited a region classified as at-risk / Category 1. Personal information provided by Lohmann in such instances can be used and retained by our customer until the end of the corresponding visit/meeting. Where Lohmann holds an on-site customer meeting then the Lohmann host will, prior to the meeting, perform an interview with the customer representative about potential risks including visits to at-risk / Category 1 regions and personal contact with known Coronavirus cases. Lohmann will use the personal data from the interview until the end of the corresponding visit/meeting.
We are confident that the measures we have put in place together with the strength and resources our global footprint provides will ensure we remain able to support our customers through this period of uncertainty. However, in the event that Lohmann has to invoke a Force Majeure due to either externally mandated measures to reduce the impact of the Coronavirus spread or the effect of Coronavirus itself, then our customers will be informed immediately and possible solutions will be discussed.
If you have any questions or require further information relating to the measures we are taking to limit the impact of Coronavirus on our daily operations then please contact your Lohmann representative. Otherwise we will endeavor to keep you informed as-and-when the situation develops.
We thank you for your support during this period of high uncertainty and look forward to together overcoming the challenges as they present themselves.
Your sincerely,
Dr Jörg Pohlman (CEO) Dr Marco Bastian (Head of TP EMEA 1) Daniel Ephgrave (Head of TP EMEA 2)
