Social distancing, hand washing and staying at home are vital if we are to minimise the strain on our health care services and to reduce the losses our communities will suffer. (It's horrible to have to write that.)
Covid19 is having multiple effects on us, and how we operate, below details some of the issues that will effect you, the customer, most.
Shipping
Royal Mail tends to be our preferred method of shipping. The customs requirements are easier to meet for international orders and they're the cheapest option domestically. To the Republic of Ireland, we had to switch to DPD as Royal mail hiked prices due to increased strain and demand on their infrastructure.
Royal Mail is currently only letting us drop off packages between 7am and 9am, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Previously we were able to drop them off at the close of business each day. This generally shouldn't affect orders shipped on Monday or Thursday. It will add an extra day to those shipped on Tuesday though, as they won't be accepted by the sorting office until the Thursday. Those orders shipped on a Friday, will have to wait until Monday to be accepted, which adds two days to delivery time. Aside from this, Royal Mail delivery times are slightly longer due to them prioritising the delivery of supplies to the NHS, HSC and other health care providers. Overall, this means first class within the UK may take 5 or so working days before it reaches you, instead of the normal 1 to 3 days.
International shipping for larger orders, we send by priority mail only. This means you suffer less delays as it passes through multiple postal services that are under strain. It also helps counteract the reduction in the number of cargo flights being run currently. We're also looking into tracked only options (that don't require a signature), to promote social distancing and to protect customers and postmen in countries that haven't put the need for signatures on hold (as Royal Mail has done in the UK).
Always feel free to reach out to us if there's something specific we can do to make shipping easier for you.
Manufacturing
Due to Covid19, we've reduced the number of staff on factory premises to ensure that we can all be over 2 metres apart at all times. This does however mean that we have less "hands on deck" to make up products.
Each mask and fever blanket is hand made from fabric we wove on our looms, washed in our laundry, and cut to shape by hand. (This is why there will always be a little variation between products, but it also means you can trust our quality, because every step is overseen by someone who has the drive to produce something they're proud of - we've pretty awesome staff.) This does mean that certain items will not be immediately ready to ship, but the maximum possible time it can take for us to fulfil an order is a week, unless the order is particularly big (over 100 units, or including many variants).
You can always get in touch via messenger to ask us what we have ready to go before you place an order. That way we can fulfil it instantly - and it speeds everything up for you.
However, we've managed to increase production capacity while also helping our local community. Buying masks from us will directly help members of our local community - I'll explain this more elsewhere. But the gist of it has been put in a couple of news papers already by our local council!
Fever blankets are different, and we aim to make them up as soon as they are ordered. They are always made in house.
Safety
All our staff wear masks all day at work. Yep, the ones we make. We've implemented the cleaning of all commonly touched surfaces multiple times per day. Every door handle, every tap - all of it. We've hand sanitiser at strategic locations through the factory (and each member of our team has their own personal bottle of it).
We have organised work stations so that people are at least 5 metres away from each other where possible. We've all taken it upon ourselves to make sure that even during lunch, we keep away from each other. Making sure we protect ourselves as well as each other.
We've shut the factory to outside visitors, and we only accept staff or delivery drivers onto the factory grounds. (So please don't call up if you are local!) We promote social distancing and self-isolation. So, we don't offer pickups of orders from our factory, and our factory shop is closed. However, if you are local, get in touch!
Thank you for your understanding and keep safe!
