Empire Industries (EIL-TSX.V) today issued a statement from Guy Nelson, Executive Chairman, CEO and President on the steps the company is taking in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 is a crisis of epic proportions and is testing us more than anyone could have imagined, on all levels; personal, organizational, community, national and global. The virus causes the most damage when we panic and ignore our health professionals’ advice.
Safety is one of our company’s fundamental values and it is being directly challenged with this pandemic. Two of our other core values, Innovation and Teamwork, are helping us navigate these difficult circumstances.
We have had to strike a balance with allocating adequate staffing while executing some of the most complex projects ever undertaken in our industry. We appreciate and respect the incredible amount of trust our employees, customers and stakeholders have in our company and pledge to honour it.
Since this crisis has reached a higher level of severity, and our workforce and their families are rightfully anxious, our company has been communicating daily with our employees. We have been channeling the health professionals’ advice and ensuring we stay focused on complying with this guidance. In fact, we have established several networks of teams to tackle this evolving crisis. Our company is involved in engineering, plant manufacturing and global field installation; it is our employees that make our business tick. Our company’s viability depends on their safety. We owe it to ourselves and our families to work safely in dramatically changed circumstances.
To ensure that we can continue with our key operations and deliver on commitments to our people and our customers, we have implemented a three operational team approach for our Vancouver production, with gaps in between for complete separation and facility cleaning. This minimizes contact between employees on different shifts. Our product Design Engineers are also divided between in-office and remote work-locations, and we also have a major project being performed in our Orlando facility. Our co-venture work is being implemented with a distributed workforce. That gives us six distinctly separate work teams, which significantly mitigates the risk of a complete work stoppage if an employee were to contract the COVID-19 virus. Approximately 60% of our staff employees are able to work remotely and this will continue, unphased by the virus, respecting the social distancing imperative.
We have contracted projects underway for theme parks in Japan, USA, Malaysia, China and the Middle East. It is imperative that we work safely and get these jobs commissioned successfully. The company’s executive team and our network of crisis management teams are working diligently to manage these challenges and adapt our practices every day. We are adapting quickly as airlines reduce service, countries activate quarantines, and social distancing impacts our manufacturing and installation operations. We are taking a proactive approach to maintain as many activities as possible while mitigating the risk of exposing any of our employees to harm.
As we re-locate our workforce to alternative locations to contain the spread of this virus, our focus will continue to be delivering on our promises. Our team is dedicated to supporting all our stakeholders through this crisis. We will use this time to plan for the rapid remobilization to the sites and resume normal operations when it is safe to do so. We are confident this crisis will end, they always do.
We have an enviable backlog of high-quality work to sustain us through this crisis and an employee workforce second to none in the industry. Our strategy is compelling, solving difficult problems through innovation which is embedded in our DNA. As in the past, innovation will continue to be one of the core values we can leverage going forward.
Stay focused and stay safe,
Guy Nelson
Executive Chairman & CEO