As communities around the world respond to the coronavirus outbreak, tile manufacturer Johnson Tiles has outlined its ongoing commitment to making the health and wellbeing of both its customers and employees the number one priority, in line with the UK government’s guidelines.

Stephen Dixon, Managing Director at Johnson Tiles, issued the following statement outlining the company’s response to the evolving coronavirus crisis: “Whilst we are closely monitoring the situation, operations are continuing as usual and there has been no interruption to our order manufacturing or delivery schedules. However, we are taking all necessary precautions to ensure our workers, supply chain partners and customers are adequately protected as the situation evolves.

“In response to the government’s social distancing guidelines, we have made the decision to temporarily close our Material Lab in London until further notice. We will continue to monitor the situation and update our policy as required.

“Where possible, we are ensuring that all employees who can work from home have the equipment required to do so. This means most of our customer services, sales and marketing teams are now working remotely. However, we continue to provide support via phone, email and teleconference, and clients can still request samples for delivery. We are adequately geared up to meet our clients’ and partners’ needs remotely via 'virtual' contact.”

On Monday 23^rd March, it was announced that tile factories in Italy would be closed until further notice. Johnson Tiles invites any housebuilders, architects or interior designers affected by delays to tile imports to get in touch, as the team is on hand to support with any urgent orders. The Johnson Tiles factory, which was established in 1901, is strategically-located in Stoke-on-Trent, enabling swift lead times.

Johnson Tiles has invested over £20 million in wall and floor tile stock to ensure continuity of supply for its customers. The company had already put precautionary measures in place pre-Brexit, so it has ample stock of its non-UK manufactured materials. 67% of Johnson Tiles’ global product offering is made in its state-of-the-art UK facility and all raw materials used in its ceramic tile production process are locally-sourced from within the UK.

Stephen Dixon also added: “We have rotas in place across our key supply chain departments (manufacturing, warehousing and logistics) to ensure we have provisions for stand-by personnel who can be drafted in, should any of our employees be directly affected by COVID-19. We are also working with the government to comply with new restrictions issued last week (w/c 16 March) with regards to drivers loading and unloading.”

Stephen Dixon concluded his statement by thanking all Johnson Tiles’ customers, clients, employees and partners for their continued support and loyalty in these unprecedented circumstances.

www.johnson-tiles.com