COVID-19 Update from Ames Rubber Corporation – March 20, 2020
| March 20, 2020 A lot has evolved since our last update, last Friday, March 13th. More confirmed cases of COVID-19 have occurred, state governments have applied unique restrictions on businesses and the public, the President of the United States has made numerous announcements, and many schools have closed their doors for extended periods of time. These changes to our lives have been discussed and plans have been developed by Ames to improve our teammate environment while keeping our customers satisfied. Business Continuity Ames Rubber operates only in the State of New Jersey. On Monday, March 16th, a State of Emergency was announced in New Jersey. Non-essential businesses such as public and private preschools, elementary and secondary schools, and institutions of higher education, as well as all casinos, racetracks, gyms, movie theaters, and performing arts centers; were all impacted by this announcement. Ames is considered an essential business and, therefore, was not impacted and at of the time of this letter, no further communication has come from the State of New Jersey regarding COVID-19. We have continued to operate under normal business conditions. We anticipate, however, that the State of New Jersey follow the likes of Pennsylvania and New York. As such, we will prepare for similar mandates. What does that mean? Since Ames should be considered an “essential” business or “life critical” business, we anticipate remaining operational. In fact, the State of Pennsylvania published a list of businesses it considers “life critical” and Plastic and Rubber Products Manufacturing was listed as such. Currently, we do not anticipate having the need to cease operations and will continue to operate under normal business conditions until otherwise dictated. Supply Chain Assessment As stated last Friday, the outbreak has not yet caused disruption to the delivery of products and product components. We are communicating with our supply chain partners daily, if not several times per day. We will continue to provide immediate communication to you, our customers, should we feel that a supply chain risk will arise. Teammate Work Scheduling We are currently planning both work-from-home and in-office working arrangements for our teammates. Several administration, sales, and finance teammates will be working from home most of the time, whereas a smaller portion of our Engineering and Quality teammates will be doing the same. For our Production teammates, we are working on a creative schedule to minimize the number of teammates on the production floor and maximizing the distance between workstations which would follow current guidelines for social distancing. As noted last Friday, we will continue to be diligent in our preventive measures to keep our facilities clean and safe. Once again, thank you for being partners in business. We hope all of you remain safe as we combat this, perhaps, once in a lifetime threat. Chuck Roberts President and Chief Executive Officer Ames Rubber Corporation |
