Coronavirus Update

National Lockdown

6th January 2021

I would first like to wish you all a very happy New Year. I hope you enjoyed a good rest over the Christmas break.

As many anticipated, an urgent second national lockdown is now required to control the Covid virus, protect the NHS, and save lives. Although there are enforced restrictions in place, the business is open, and we will endeavour to maintain the high level of service expected by our customers.

Here at Response @ ERA, rest assured, safety is our top priority and we are continually adapting the way we operate in order to protect our people. The warehouse and supply chain teams are now prioritised in our Covid safe office environment. The remaining office staff are working remotely for the time being. 

There is the possibility that delivery times on some products may move out due to fewer staff on the ground and therefore, we respectfully request your understanding while we work though these challenges. A few team members have recently contracted Covid and have thankfully made a full recovery due to self-isolation and rest, but this too has had an impact on our operations. A reminder of the main telephone number should you need support:

Alarms and smart security technical helpdesk T: 0345 257 2500

By working together and supporting one another, I am confident we will emerge from the pandemic stronger. I thank you for your support during these challenges. Stay safe, and I wish you well.

Best Wishes

Helen Downer

Commercial Director

Trading Update

5th November 2020

Firstly, I do hope that you and your loved ones are safe and well at this time. With winter drawing close, our challenge seems to step up in continuing to protect each other from Covid-19 and adapting to how we manage our work and home lives accordingly. With the recent UK Government announcement for a second lockdown starting on today, I wanted to confirm that we will remain open during November.

Here at Response @ ERA, we are working hard to protect our colleagues and manage our customer service levels. We have worked tirelessly on updating our safety procedures and invested in improving work-place social distancing, sanitising equipment and protective equipment.

However, whilst we felt lucky first time around, we have recently experienced three positive Covid-19 cases at our Wolverhampton site. As we operate a Covid secure site, we were able to contain these cases and therefore avoided further transmission within our workforce. I am pleased to say that all three employees experienced mild symptoms and are back at work.. It has served as a reminder that our focus has to be on working together to keep each other safe and there are a number of actions that we are taking:

• We have partnered with a testing agency so should any member of our team present symptoms – even those not frequently reported on – we can independently test them if government tests aren’t immediately available;
• We are prioritising warehouse and internal sales within our HQ. Many office-based colleagues are now working from home. We have invested in kit to enable them to do so and they are plugged straight into the main office numbers you are used to calling;
• We are spreading the management of inbound deliveries and outbound order picking and packing to avoid creating a bottleneck at the end of the day, which puts at risk our social distancing policy;
• We are stopping visitors coming on-site unless it is for essential purposes. There are additional safety measures for anyone who does need to come onto site.
• We are working cross-functionally to manage product availability; with sales, supply chain and finance working seamlessly together.

We are closing this year, on the 18th December for the Christmas period and will not reopen until Monday 4th January 2021. I would like to thank you for your patience and support during 2020. It’s been a year of getting used to a new normal and has certainly presented some challenges over the past few months. I can honestly say that I am truly proud of how the team has adapted and to see how focussed they have been on looking after our customers.

Best Wishes

Helen Downer

Commercial Director

Trading Update

27th May 2020

Livesafeworksafe# is a new term Respone @ ERA are getting used to and we hope you are too.

We are pleased to confirm Response @ ERA is now back up and running, albeit currently in a reduced capacity as we gradually increase our workforce and service offering with the safety of our team at the forefront of our approach.

Where are we now?

• 40% of our workforce are now back to work, either operating from the offices on i54 Wolverhampton, or working from home.
  • One-way systems, temperature checks and safe distancing rules are in place to keep everyone operating safely as our employees return to work. 

• You can place orders by email or telephone by calling 0345 257 2500. We are reviewing daily demands against people resources in order to ensure we are able to deal with customer needs efficiently. 

• We have continued to work with suppliers and accept shipments so we have good stock availability to support your business. 

• We are working to improve on delivery times – currently 3-5 days – but this is still impacted by staff resources and overwhelmed couriers.  We are working hard to improve this. 

• Online ordering is now available or orders can be placed by calling:  0345 257 2500. 

You will start to see more of Response @ ERA now on social media and other channels as we work to update you regularly on our progress and keep you up to speed on our new product lines, which we have continued to develop and invest in during Lockdown.  

Our initial goal was to keep our employees safe and at home.  Now, it is to get them back to work as quickly and as safely as possible.  This unprecedented situation has been an incredible challenge for us all in learning to live and work under completely new rules and we hope that as a business, you are also coming to terms with new methods of working and are feeling positive about the future. 

Best Wishes

Helen Downer

Commercial Director

Changes to our ways of working

24th March 2020

With the latest announcement from the UK Government last night, 23rd March 2020, with immediate effect, ERA has begun a process to close all of our UK operations. We will review the situation on a regular basis, but anticipate this will be for a minimum of 3 weeks, taking us to the 14th April 2020. We will communicate again as we approach this date to let you know of our next steps.

Response @ ERA staff are diligently working to get any orders already received out to customers today and tomorrow, at which time, the business will suspend operations and despatches will stop. There will be no further orders processed after today.

Our E-Commerce site, responseelectronics.com, will also stop trading. However, the site will continue to be available to allow you to view products, as well as to select parts for your basket, which you can keep there until we reopen, meaning you can more rapidly place orders.

Our helpdesk support will continue, albeit in much reduced capacity, so please be patient if you are trying to speak to someone.

These are unprecedented times that are impacting everyone far and wide. We have worked hard since this crisis started to ensure continuity of supply. Over the coming weeks, we will be continuing to receive shipments into our warehouse and are therefore confident that we will be well placed to service demand, when we all come out of this on the other side.

Everyone at Response @ ERA wishes you and your loved ones well. Stay home and stay safe. 

If you have any further questions, please contact us.

Changes to our ways of working

17th March 2020

With the latest changes to ways of working announced yesterday by the Government for people based in the UK, we wanted to confirm what this will mean for the Response @ ERA team and the impact on our customers.

We take the safety and wellbeing of our people very seriously alongside that of our stakeholders. We are also operating to the terms of our business continuity plan. Therefore, plans around ‘social distancing’ are being implemented and the following steps are being taken;

• We will not be receiving visitors to any of our sites for non-essential activity. This will include customer visits and test lab reviews
• All external sales team members are being asked to limit travel and take the necessary precautions if a visit is essential. All planned meetings will be conducted via telephone calls or skype
• We are ensuring anyone who has symptoms or lives with people displaying the Coronavirus symptoms to self-isolate for the directed amount of time
• We are ensuring any member of staff that falls into the category of vulnerable based on underlying health conditions are working from home
• We are implementing a rota-based system in our production, customer services and warehousing teams

What this means for our customers is the following:

• The biggest impact will be our lead-times in order to pick and despatch. Our normal next day service for deliveries may move to a lead time of 48-72 hours based on staffing levels in the warehouse
• Our customer services teams may take a little longer to pick up the phone. 

We will do our best to uphold the service you are accustomed to with Response @ ERA, however we would appreciate your patience given that we are having to adjust our staffing levels to meet the changes outlined. Currently our stock levels remain good and we continue to monitor the situation daily working with any customers where they may be a potential issue in the future.

As I am sure you are aware, the situation remains very fluid and we will communicate with you if any further changes are needed. I hope you recognise the intention of this communication and understand that we are taking practical steps to support the efforts as outlined by Government. We recognise that this will present some challenges, however we are making every effort to continue business as normal whilst minimising the risks.

If you have any further questions, please contact us.