While many Australian businesses have been forced to close their doors in recent weeks due to COVID-19, Australian manufacturer, Safetyline Jalousie Louvre windows are open for business.
Established in 2010 by brothers Leigh and Nathan Rust, Safetyline Jalousie supplies high-rated energy efficient louvred windows to developers for construction projects, including new commercial and residential developments, as well as refits of all manner of established buildings to improve their energy efficiency and air flow controls.
Despite having to make some adjustments to protocols in recent weeks, Safetyline Jalousie Director Leigh Rust said business was continuing to trade as close to normal as possible.
“We have increased safety and cleaning protocols for all staff and continue to follow the directives of NSW Health and the Federal Government,” said Leigh.
“In order to safeguard the health of our employees and minimise the impact on the delivery of services to our clients, we implemented disinfection procedures, rotating schedules and split team options to reduce the number of people working within a single location, and continue to maintain contact with suppliers to ensure they apply comparable mitigation practices with their teams while still maintaining service levels.”
While sales and marketing staff already work remotely, Safetyline Jalousie asked all its office staff to also work from home, meaning that only manufacturing staff were required on-site.
To keep them safe, additional requirements such as staff temperature checks and regular hand washing, through the installation of hand wash stations on the factory floor, were added to the government-mandated distancing rules to minimise any risk of viral transmission.
Enforcement of these rules has been simple, the entrepreneur explains, as staff want to ensure their own safety amid the pandemic, and even feel safer having these extra measures in place.
Far from being complex, Leigh adds that implementing these measures as an employer was “pretty straightforward”, and that the business may even retain them permanently.
“I think this is the new normal, and after the virus restrictions are over, we’ll probably keep these measures in place anyway to maintain a healthy and hygienic workplace,”
In response to whether they can expect to see continued market faith during COVID19, Leigh is maintaining a positive outlook despite the uncertainty.
“We don’t have any supply issues, so we continue to supply our product to market,” he said.
“The construction industry is still moving ahead, there’s talk about 24-hour construction sites, which is a whole other topic of conversation – but it does give us a welcome boost of confidence as suppliers.”
“As I said, its business as usual for us, and the deals we’ve been working on lately have given us the stability we need to ride this out and look after our employees in the process.”
“We’re in a stable position, we’ve a family owned and operated business, we’ve been around for 10-years and we have no supply problems,” said Leigh.
