UCC Coffee UK & Ireland: Covid-19 coronavirus update
17 March 2020
With the Covid-19 outbreak continuing to evolve and significantly impact the hospitality and retail sectors, we wanted to keep you informed of the steps we are taking to support our employees, customers and the industry during these challenging and unprecedented times.
Our number one priority is the welfare and safety of our employees, customers, partners and the communities we work within. We also recognise the important role we at UCC Coffee can play in helping to restrict the spread of the virus.
We’re following all official guidance from the health authorities and have implemented additional policies that go beyond government advice, to provide enhanced support for our employees and their families.
And employees that do not need to be on a UCC Coffee site to undertake their role are working from home. This means our core functions are continuing as normal, while reducing the risk of infection spread for all employees, including social distancing measures for employees who do need to remain on site.
Our customers
Minimising the risk of disruption to our customers is at the heart of our decision making and we’re taking all the steps within our control to ensure our service to you, including our coffee and technical production, continues as planned.
We’ve also undertaken detailed scenario planning for our coffee machine service engineering operation, in the event of a reduction in the number of engineers in the field. Actions include prioritising reactive maintenance over preventative, utilising additional trained resource from within our business, health and hygiene protocols and social distancing measures for our technical teams when attending site.
Our account managers and customer contact centre teams are available to answer your questions and will work together with you to ease any problems you may be facing as a result of the coronavirus situation.
Our supply chains
We’re in continual dialogue with all of our supply chain partners to understand any possible disruption that may affect our supply of products, including coffee, equipment, spare parts, and side products. If and when disruption is anticipated, we’ll communicate this swiftly to affected customers and work with them to mitigate the impact.
Our roastery
In addition to normal site access controls at our Dartford roastery, we’re screening and monitoring all staff, contractors and suppliers through health checks, temperature readings and swab tests. Only visitors who are business critical are permitted on site and they are subject to the same stringent health check protocols.
We’ve also implemented other risk reducing measures including zoning, separating shift changes, staggering breaktimes, increased frequency of deep cleaning and sanitising procedures, extra guidance on removal of disposable gloves to avoid hand contamination and the introduction of new cupping protocols.
We’re here to help
Currently, UCC Coffee is operating as usual and we’re undertaking extensive continuity planning, so we are prepared for all business outcomes of the coronavirus outbreak. We’ll be keeping our customers and stakeholders regularly updated on any anticipated disruption to our products or services, if and when this occurs.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your dedicated account manager or our Customer Contact Centre on 01908 275 520.
Thank you.
Elaine Swift
Regional Director Northern & Eastern Europe
UCC Coffee