Aegg gives a lowdown on activities during lockdown...
What have we been doing during the Lockdown?
Industry has been turned on its head since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The food and drink packaging sector has been working hard to supply the nation with essential food and drink supplies.
Aegg is classified as an essential business because we are part of the food and drink supply chain and we have continued to stay open to support our food and drink customers throughout these tricky times, supplying glass pasta sauce and jam jars, glass drinks bottles and plastic pots amongst other items of essential packaging.
We made changes necessary to meet both the changes in customer demand as well as needing to conform to the government’s latest guidelines.
Using our design studio 3d-printer we also volunteered to produce components for PPE face shields for frontline key workers, as part of 3D Crowd project’s #TheBigPrint. A small quantity admittedly, but every little bit helps.
Offering a Flexible Service
It must be very hard for our customers, to predict the levels of stock required to keep supermarket shelves filled. We try to keep as flexible as we can by keeping key packaging items in stock.
Where the hospitality sector has been really hard hit by the lockdown, some companies started up e-commerce or takeaway services. We worked with many of these outlets to provide boxed quantities of our lidded food pots, helping them to find a way to keep serving their loyal customers.
What our Teams Have Been Doing
None of this would have been possible without the support of our amazing teams working in all areas of our business.
Aegg's Head Office in Andover
Members of our Andover HQ team have been able to work from home. Nicola, who works in the accounts team, is one such team member, although she is now starting to work from both the office and from home.
Nicola said “It took a while getting used to working from home at first, as my 7yr and 10yr children were also at home, being home schooled by their dad and me. However, as the weeks went by, we got into a routine and I got used to it. Now I’m starting to gradually go back to working from the office for 1-2 days a week. Although it’s quieter than normal, as there are only a few of us in the office at a time as we’re working on a staggered rota, it’s good to be back in the office!”
Donna, Aegg’s Marketing and Office Manager, is one of our team who were recently on furlough. She was keeping extremely busy with volunteering work in the village she lives in. The Thruxton Virus Volunteers was set up by a villager just before lockdown to provide care and support to the villagers whilst fundraising to support the residents through the crisis. Donna is a key member of the group and has been collecting and delivering prescriptions and food supplies to vulnerable residents in the village, or those in self-isolation. Donna and her husband Pete have also provided entertainment to members of the Facebook group, including staging live cocktail demos!
On VE day, Donna and the volunteers put together food parcels to deliver to residents so that they could enjoy a socially distant afternoon tea (including Donna’s homemade lemon cheesecakes - made in Aegg pots!).
Aegg’s Senior Management Team
Meanwhile, our senior management team have been meeting first thing each day via Zoom to ensure strategic and operational measures are in place, to help the business through the daily challenges.
Keeping Everyone In Touch
We have also set up a WhatsApp group so that every single member of the Aegg team can keep in touch, look after their mental health and keep up the Aegg camaraderie during lockdown.
A message from the senior team
“We would like to thank everyone for their outstanding support, understanding and dedication throughout these tricky times. We really do appreciate our colleagues even more so now than ever. We really look forward to seeing everyone back in head office and at our logistics hub, undoubtedly operating to different health and safety practices.”
What we are doing going forward
At the time of writing, following the recent government announcement that workers can now start to return to their offices where it is safe to do so, some of those who were working from home have been given the option to work from our HQ.
Set up with hand sanitizer, anti-bacterial spray, new video conferencing technology and backed up with a new set of social distancing procedures the business is now entering a new phase.
Although practical operations at our logistics hub has been closer to “business as usual”, there are health and safety changes here too.
It will take a long time for the industry to get back to ‘normal’. As parts of the economy come out of lockdown, our teams will be there, doing everything we can to provide a flexible service in getting essential food and drink packaging to customers when they need it.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your food or drink packaging requirements on 01722 416401.
