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Like most in this industry, last week was undoubtedly the hardest in my career. To have to close the business – even for what we hope is weeks rather than months, was genuinely heartbreaking.
In the end of course, none of us really had a choice. Keeping our staff and in turn their families and loved ones safe was always going to override any kind of commercial consideration. Added to that was the sense that, by acting quickly and alongside so many other businesses, we were doing what was necessary to slow the spread of Coronavirus and reduce the burden on the NHS. Hopefully, it is the actions we take now which will eventually help shorten the length of the overall shutdown for all of us.
The fenestration industry has proved so many times that it has a huge heart and, even in the first few days of this surreal new world, we’ve seen lots of examples of that. There was an incredible solidarity around the decisions to close, and a real and reassuring sense that we are all in this together.
Amongst Mila staff, every single member of the team has been doing all they can to support customers right up until the moment that operations officially close on Wednesday 1 April. We’ve already seen several who won’t be at Mila over the coming weeks signing up to volunteer their time for the NHS, and we’re proud to be able to support them in that.
At this point, our focus has to be on getting through the next few weeks as a team and we’ll be stepping up communications with staff and with customers so that, even though we are now all social distancing, we can still stay closely in touch.
We are told that the peak of infections and, sadly, deaths is still to come but that the social distancing is starting to work. What I have learnt from Mila’s manufacturing partners in China is that, if everyone adheres strictly to the guidelines, then we will all get back to something approaching normal, perhaps sooner than we fear.
When I spoke to Steve Johnson, the head of Mila’s dedicated operation in China this week, he told me the vast majority of our supply partners there are now operating normally, and I saw some figures this morning which showed that China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index which monitors manufacturing activity bounced back from 35.7 in February to 52 in March. If you consider that anything above 50 represents expansion, it should give us hope that the UK will be able to recover relatively quickly as well.
Like the rest of us, I’ll be staying at home for the next few weeks, but I’ll still be posting regularly. Stay safe everyone.
Richard
