More local manufacturers rush to support NHS

Vinyl-wrapped furniture manufacturer Crystal Doors announced that it is delivering over 5,000 bed tops, side tables and cupboards on a 24-hour production schedule to help stock the NHS emergency ‘Nightingale’ treatment centre being built at the NEC in Birmingham.

The company - one of GC Business Growth Hub’s success stories - received the emergency order from Lancashire-based Teal HealthCare & LifeCare shortly before its Rochdale factory was set to be shut down. Managing Director Richard Hagan immediately contacted his workforce for last-minute volunteers to make up the order. He explained:

“On Wednesday [1 April] we were preparing to close the factory down and I did a final ring-round of our customers when Teal said they needed several thousand items of furniture for the NHS and they needed them now. Crystal Doors use a special anti-bacterial material to make our furniture and that’s vital in the NHS. It makes me incredibly proud that Crystal Doors is able to play part in the national response to Coronavirus.”

Nearby company Swift Electrical Supplies was also able to step in to provide a much-needed part after Crystal Doors’ robot sprayer went down and the original supplier in Italy wasn’t able to respond quick enough.

Elsewhere, Manchester paint manufacturer HMG Paints revealed that it is converting its alcohol stocks into hand sanitiser after staff said they were unable to find sanitiser in shops. The first batch of ‘First Thing Sanitiser’ was donated to the Greater Manchester Police (GMP), local care homes and frontline workers.

HMG Paints Managing Director, John Falder, said:

“Our team of chemists have worked extremely hard on the formulation and it has been a true team effort to make the hand sanitiser available.”

The paint manufacturer is the latest of a growing number of businesses to shift production to hand sanitiser, including chemicals giant Ineos, beer brewer BrewDog and even an independent family-run distillery in Wirral, Tappers Gin.