At Victrex the safety health and well-being of all our employees is the highest priority.

We established a COVID-19 committee at the start of 2020 and are taking appropriate precautions and being proactive in our approach.

Chemicals as an essential industry

The UK government defines Chemicals as an essential industry with essential workers, with Victrex also having a long-standing history in supporting many critical and 'life-sustaining' applications, particularly in Medical. In the US, we continue to operate on an ongoing modified basis, defined as being a 'life-sustaining' organisation in several states. Overall, our supply chain continues to function effectively.

Over two-thirds of our global employees are homeworking, where we have taken measures to reduce staffing levels to only business-critical employees and those essential to running our plants and shipping products. Our China technical centre is open and operating under appropriate guidelines.

Return to site preparedness

During April we reopened our AITC offices in China (Shanghai). While we planned limited return to work for some employees in our other regions, including the UK and US, additional government guidelines have restricted this. As such, our guiding principle is that where employees are working from home, they should continue to do so. Victrex continues to function very effectively and we have already fully risk assessed offices should a Return to Site eventually be required. These risk assessments are only in consultation and approval through our COVID-19 committee.

Customers

Overall our employees, including those customer-facing, remain contactable as normal by phone and email in home offices, ready to serve customers.

Our raw material and finished goods stocks remain appropriate at the current time for our customers, with global warehouses able to supplement our production. Nearly 100% of our customer deliveries have been on time in full (OTIF) since the onset of COVID-19.

Communities

Victrex already has a strong track record of supporting our communities wherever we operate globally. To date, we have seen community volunteering, the manufacture of 3D printed masks and manufacture of ear savers for masks from recycled material in one of our facilities. We continue to play our part.

Financial position

Our financial position remains robust, with healthy cash generation and available borrowing facilities. We have continued to stress-test a range of scenarios in the event of trading worsening. Details can be found within the Investor section of this website as part of our half and full year reports.

We are safeguarding production and our supply chain by asking staff to work from home and reducing staffing levels to only business-critical employees and those essential to running our plants and shipping products, or key development work, or by segregating members of our operations and supply chain team accordingly Our employees, including those customer-facing, remain contactable as normal by phone and email in home offices, ready to serve customers.

Contact:

Tel: +44 1253 897700

(C) 2020 Electronic News Publishing, source ENP Newswire