Donald Moore, chair of ethical schoolwear manufacturer Rowlinson Knitwear, documents the company’s journey through the Covid-19 pandemic.
We really value the schoolwear community and we thought we would share a blog and an updated version we did for the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter as one of its first six members.
We know that running a seasonal business is often challenging and lonely and we hope this blog gives you some inspiration and a feeling that it’s fine to be overwhelmed. It’s also a time when we will all be defined by what we do now and how we do it and for many years to come.
Overwhelmed? So are we! – 21 March 2020
We thought we would share our issues and also some positive messages from our colleagues in these most difficult times. At Rowlinson, and as an employee-owned company, we are guided by our values of trust and care and by doing the best right thing. That makes some decisions easier to make for the good of everyone we work with; our colleagues, suppliers and our customers, mainly hundreds of independent retailers.
It seems so long ago when we briefed our first phase to everyone, which we called ‘be sensible’. It seemed obvious to pay more attention to hygiene; we gave everyone hand sanitisers, tissues and asked everyone to be separate. We also briefed what then became our second phase, which we called ‘Essential only’. This was that everyone that could, would work from home and luckily our first test was successful.
We split our operational teams who work in the warehouse and on machines into two; an early shift and a late shift. We said we would cancel all non-essential spending and look for credit from suppliers, although this buying remains intact. Plus, we talked about sacrifice and how we would look for pay cuts across the company rather than layoffs. We briefed this stage by video; the first of many to everyone using our Slack channel. We also said that orders may be a fraction of what we would expect and that we had approached our bank for help.
The next change was to announce pay cuts and plans for our vulnerable people.
As you might expect, the pay cuts ranged from 50% for the highest earners to 10% for those earning more than £21k. Those earning less would not have their pay reduced. We also had difficult conversations with the people we classed as vulnerable; saying they would need to keep away from work and be paid a lower amount. The feedback was amazing!
“There is no company I would rather work for during the crisis.” “Not an easy message to watch but much harder I imagine to deliver – I know the company will look after us to the best of its ability and I am more than happy to help out in whichever way I can.” “Tough message to deliver – we’re all in this together. Team Rowlinson. Love to all.”
That’s just a sample from everyone who commented in a similar way, which makes us all feel proud. Even better is that all our people are helping each other; checking in and sharing details of how best to get through with wellbeing and tips for entertaining children. Our next phase will be much more difficult as trading conditions subside but made so much easier with the government announcements recently.
Finally, and the timing was perfect, we are so grateful for the mental health training that around 40 of our colleagues had delivered by the Business Growth Hub. Everyone learned so much and if ever there was a need to consider mental health and resilience it’s now! Thank you very much.
Update: 26 March 2020
So much has happened in the past few days. We learned about furloughing and the superb and necessary government initiatives to protect pay and business loans. Unfortunately, 75% of our colleagues have been furloughed this week as our customers are closed for business. All our furloughed people will receive half the difference between the furloughed amount and their monthly pay; for most people that is 90% of their usual pay.
The leaders are working but on an average of half-pay which we had set out previously. One unintended consequence is that a few of our colleagues have volunteered for NHS duties, which is brilliant. It was sad but right that we furloughed everyone who uses public transport and better for their health and social distancing for everyone. We also furloughed people we felt were vulnerable.
The morale is fantastic as we send a video from the leadership every couple of days. Everyone is helping each other to keep spirits high. We are checking in with everyone, especially those who need more reassurance and help. We were also really pleased to let everyone know that our request for a high temporary overdraft was approved by our bank HSBC today. It was lucky that we asked for that before the government announcement on loans.
So, spirits are surprisingly high considering the events of the past few days – though it seems like months!
We have planned and suggested that the near lockdown could move to total lockdown and that it could last three months. That’s what we think and we should all prepare for worse news as the death rates escalate and idiots ignore social distancing and sensible food buying.
Finally, we consider that we will all be defined by what we do and how we do it now, for a generation. We will look back knowing we did the right thing for our colleagues, our customers and our suppliers, who continue to be paid fully on time and with no cancelled orders. That’s something we are all proud of and the opposite of some disgraceful examples in the media.
We are still overwhelmed but surprisingly less than we were…
Update: 3 April 2020
We have furloughed 75% of our colleagues now. There is a small skeleton crew in the warehouse receiving container deliveries and working on orders. We are updating our colleagues every couple of days by video. We had our first video conferencing catch-ups involving half of us focusing on what we are all doing to keep our spirits up.
Our big challenge now is cash collecting, as we have delivered early on our forward orders with large discounts. We are going back to the bank to keep our supply chain going and hope that our customers are also making use of all the schemes available to them.
We have had some mixed feedback. However, we are encouraged by positive signs that customers are taking action to meet their obligations, which we are grateful for and who we will remember favourably when the industry returns to some normality; hopefully in a few weeks. We will, as I mentioned earlier, be defined by what we do and how we do it now. It’s a time for our market to be fair, to work together and be kind to others as it usually is. We really hope that everyone is staying safe and healthy and we can all get back to work soon when we are advised to.
Update: 6 April 2020
We video called everyone again today with our anticipated timeline. We expect a relaxing of the lockdown at the end of the month, a gradual return to work during May and full steam ahead in early June. With special thanks to those working in such difficult circumstances.
We are also delighted with the response from customers paying large invoices due next week. Some have paid already. Others will pay in full next week. Some are part paying and just a couple don’t want to pay. We really appreciate customer support during these terrible times and we will repay that support by giving great service.
For further information on Rowlinson Knitwear, please click here.
