Coronavirus - Update
30/07/20
Pacer continues to operate at 100% of capacity and all suppliers are now shipping to schedule. We are seeing some lengthening of lead times on new orders and would consequently ask all our customers to check with either their field sales contact or their internal sales contact to verify delivery times on new orders. All quotes now reflect the new lead times and are as accurate as we can get, given the changing information from our suppliers.
Pacer continues to work with its customers to ensure adequate buffer stocks are in place and would be pleased to hear from you if we can support you in this way. We are expecting some disruption as Covid-19 amplifies the effect of a potential hard Brexit at the end of the year. At Pacer we are fully prepared for the impact of Brexit and do not anticipate any difficulties; however we are aware that many companies importing to the UK may not have experience of customs procedures and paperwork. This, when combined with the Covid-19 capacity issues, is likely to cause delays at all major ports and airports, and in turn we expect to see freight costs rise again as ports become clogged and storage charges are applied. We would strongly recommend that you give consideration to your forward order book so that we can preposition stock in the UK for you at the end of the year and start of the new year.
Where possible, and subject to certain safety procedures, we are resuming customer visits to assist engineers with their designs and to update procurement specialists. All of our staff remain available for TEAMs calls and are happy to assist in any way possible. If you need an engineer or member of our field sales team to visit you please do not hesitate to make contact.
Finally, we are continuing to partner with key suppliers to provide on line training and updates and would encourage you make use of these free activities to stay abreast of the latest product introductions and innovations as well as to acquire new skills and expertise.
We look forward to hearing from you and trust that you and your families have escaped the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
John Macmichael
Managing Director
18/05/20
As Pacer Components and Solid State Supplies Ltd. have been operating at 100% since the lockdown, the recent government easing of restrictions has had little direct impact. The businesses continue to run unabated. You will have read previously that our first priority has been to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our staff. This was done well in advance of the government enforced lockdown, and our enhanced wellbeing programmes are providing support to our staff through these difficult times. Our agility and ability to equip staff to work from their homes has resulted in 78% of our staff as a whole working remotely and 94% of our production staff continuing to work as normal with no reported drop in service levels. I am proud to be able to say that, in contrast to our competitors, across our entire distribution business we have almost zero furloughed staff.
It is now our intention to continue this agile working, and preparations are being made at all of our sites across the country to make the necessary changes to ensure that those members of staff that prefer to work in an office environment can do so safely, when the time is right, whilst those that prefer to work from home can continue to do so in the knowledge that they will not become isolated. I believe that this continuation of agile working will result in us being able to provide even higher service levels.
Our technical teams have put together a number of seminars to ensure that we keep you abreast of the latest developments from our key suppliers. Please feel free to join these technical sessions. A listing can be found at https://www.sssltd.com/events/ . There’s never been a better time to bring your knowledge up to date and some of these seminars are hands-on despite the use of the internet.
Our suppliers and franchises have worked with us to ensure that we have maintained, and continue to maintain, continuity of supply. Our buffer stock programmes remain robust and the vast majority of our customers are now back at work. All of our major suppliers are operational and shipping. There have however been delays caused by extended lead times and by extended transport times. I would encourage you to call your internal contact to check on lead times for any future requirements that you may have. All of our customer facing staff have been equipped with video calling through Microsoft TEAMS© so you can have that face to face meeting without ever leaving your desk. Please do call us, we are and always have been open for business and don’t forget that our sourcing team are available to help with those products that have become difficult to find in this chaotic world.
Best regards
John Macmichael
Managing Director
17/04/20
Pacer is pleased to be able to report that it is now operating at 100% capacity again.
The measures that we took early on in this process to ensure the safety of our colleagues and the continuity of our business are still proving to be robust. All staff except for warehouse and production operatives are fully functional from home. Warehouse staff continue to operate the warehouse at full capacity, on a rotational basis, for both inbound and outbound shipments and our production operatives are volunteering to work overtime to ensure that critical supplies get to our customers on time, every time.
All hygiene and social distancing measures are continuing and PPE has been provided where appropriate. Morale remains high amongst all staff members and our virtual social programmes are providing a welcome relief to the enforced confinement.
External sales teams are still operating albeit from home, and our technical teams are working closely with customers’ engineers on both existing and new projects. Various webinars are being organised to keep our customers’ engineers up to date with the latest product developments.
Where we have been notified by our customers that they have been designated as a critical business we have ensured that we prioritise our activity accordingly. We have further flowed these notifications down to our own supply chains to ensure continuity of supply. To date, stock continues be delivered to our warehouse helping us to maintain the necessary buffers to support you. In some exceptional cases we have seen delays to incoming stock, and where possible this is being proactively notified to you. Our customer service teams are in place and despite being at home their service levels continue to be very high. Please call your usual contact if you have a specific question.
In terms of our customer base we continue to appreciate your support and would encourage you to keep a close eye on lead times as deliveries start to be delayed. To date, less than 4% of our customers have notified us that they have closed, meaning that approximately 96% of you are continuing to run your businesses in these stressful times. If there is anything we can do to support you please do make contact with us, whether that’s technical support, an urgent requirement or even a requirement for hard to find parts. We are here to help and we want to help.
Thank you for your support, stay healthy and we look forward to the day when we can once again see you in person.
Best regards
John Macmichael
Managing Director
03/04/2020
I am pleased to be able to report that Pacer Components Ltd and Pacer USA LLC continue to operate at close to 100% of capacity. The measures that we have taken to ensure the safety of our staff and the continuity of our business are proving to be robust. A large number of our staff are equipped to work from home, and have been doing so effectively and efficiently for nearly 4 weeks now. This early response to the virus has so far paid dividends.
In terms of statistics 76% of staff are fully functional at home; the remaining 24% are fully functional in our warehouse and production facilities. All measures to protect staff on site have been taken and to date our rolling isolation of warehouse staff is working efficiently. Where necessary some staff members have gone into self-isolation but are continuing to function from home.
Many of our customers have contacted us expressing the critical nature of our business to the continued supply of medical equipment and indeed equipment essential to the national security and infrastructure of the country. All of our staff are aware of the importance of the job that they do and are working diligently to ensure continuity of supply. Where we deem our suppliers to be critical to this work, we have flowed down the continuity of supply requirements and are receiving positive responses.
As at the 3rd April we are continuing to meet the demand of our customers and are attempting to build buffers of medically critical components.
As per all previous communications our customer service teams are operating as normal and morale remains high. If you have any concerns about your shipments, I would encourage you to please call your normal contact and get a specific update.
Finally, as the advert once said “It’s good to talk” so please do pick up the phone and call. Human contact, all be it just a voice at the end of a phone line, is very important in these times of isolation and in this regard we can all help each other.
Wishing you all a safe passage through these difficult times
John Macmichael
Managing Director
27/03/2020
I am pleased to be able to report that our advanced preparations continue to pay dividends. Pacer Components Ltd. is still operating at 100% capacity with 75% of the workforce equipped for and working, transparently, at home. Warehouse staff continue to operate on a rotation basis with cross trained personnel ready to step in if the need arises. Production staff are observing all hygiene procedures, social distancing and production has been split across different areas of our buildings.
We have experienced some delays to incoming goods but approximately 90% of incoming deliveries are still meeting commit dates. Carriers are still operating allowing us to meet shipment deadlines.
In some cases we have decided to ship product slightly ahead of the requirement date but we are invoicing to the commit date. This is to ensure that customers receive product in good time without payment penalties and are able to continue some level of production even in the event that the availability of carriers is reduced. In return we are asking all customers to please pay promptly to ensure that we can continue this level of service to you.
We have been notified by a small number of customers that they have closed their warehouses to incoming goods. If this is the case for you please contact your internal sales exec to avoid unnecessary shipment returns.
For those customers that have contacted us and are designated as ‘Critical Industries’ I can assure you that we are in receipt of the notifications and that our employees meet the Government’s present definition of key worker status for the purpose of supporting work that is considered essential during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Wishing you continued good health.
John Macmichael
Managing Director.
23/03/2020
At Pacer Components we are very aware that a lot of the products that we manufacture and distribute are being used in electronic and optical medical equipment. Several of our medical customers have contacted us to ensure that we are continuing to ship product. I am happy to confirm that this is the case and that medical customers have been listed as a priority.
Our production staff have been made aware of their critical importance in this difficult time and are making superlative efforts to ensure that production is not interrupted including in many cases forgoing holiday and working additional hours.
The current situation is that all customers irrespective of their own end product are being supplied and we expect this to continue. In some cases we may ship product to you earlier than your request date. This allows us to keep a constant and measured workflow with the reduced staffing levels that we have available in our warehouses due to our isolation procedures. We will endeavour to ensure that your invoices are dated according to your request date but we would ask in return that you please pay promptly.
Many staff members at Pacer were fully equipped to work from home well over 10 days ago and have been doing so since that time. We are maintaining the minimum possible staffing level in our warehouses to ensure that we can both receive and ship goods to you. In the event that our warehouse staff are affected by Covid-19 we will bring back those fully trained warehouse employees that are currently being isolated at their homes and if necessary we will bring in staff that completed voluntary cross training on our warehouse procedures over 4 weeks ago.
More complete details of our emergency continuation processes are detailed in previous notifications on our news page.
We continue to believe that we are well prepared, that we are stringently following all government guidance and that our early preparations for this situation will allow us to keep running the business until we are instructed not to.
Should you have any further questions then please contact your internal sales exec as normal.
Please be assured of our best endeavours at all times.
John Macmichael
Managing Director.