Message On Gilbarco Veeder-Root Europe's Operations During Covid-19

From Jason Lund, European Managing Director

At Gilbarco Veeder-Root, we understand in times of uncertainty your business needs to rely on trusted partners more than ever to ensure business continuity and we are pleased to report that since the outbreak of the pandemic we have continued to be able to deliver the industry leading service, product availability, and expertise that are the cornerstones of our business.

This has been made possible by the fact that Gilbarco Veeder-Root, including our European production facilities and field service teams, has been designated a life sustaining and essential business. This is in recognition of our important services to critical refuelling infrastructure, which enables medical professionals, essential workers and supply chains to continue to operate.

We are continuing to monitor the impact of the COVID-19 Coronavirus worldwide. Our Leadership Team continues to meet daily to monitor the situation, share best practice between countries, and implement appropriate new measures across all our locations as the situation evolves. Our priorities are three-fold and these have been clear from the start: 1) protect our employees’ safety; 2) care for our customers and communities, and; 3) ensure the continued health of our business for the benefit of all of us.

1) Protecting our Employees’ Safety – we have:

  • Made provision for all colleagues who can work remotely to do so, additionally supporting their wellbeing and that of their families through flexible working arrangements as required;
  • Designed and implemented a new 12 Step Safety approach for all our field engineers focusing on how to operate safely during COVID-19;
  • Introduced innovative solutions to support local social distancing requirements in our factory locations to enable our production staff to continue to work safely whilst delivering on our customer commitments;
  • Suspended all business trips, international and domestic, until further notice. Any future travel will only be authorised if the conditions meet our exacting safety criteria, over and above specific government advice.

2) Caring for our Customers and Communities – we are:

  • Ensuring we can continue to serve our customers by keeping an appropriate volume and geographic distribution of service engineers in the field;
  • Applying a proactive approach to understanding our customers’ own essential operations, thereby enabling us to deliver services around their specific needs, e.g. prioritising designated ‘blue light’ or emergency service refuelling locations;
  • Observing at least the minimum (if not exceeding the bar on) physical distancing and hygiene requirements in the field;
  • Introducing a first of its kind touchless e-paperwork process for forecourt operators, and working with them to help make this a reality;
  • Successfully managing to sustain production and shipping volumes from our production facilities, with only minimal increases to our standard lead times, owing only to slightly reduced efficiencies from necessary social distancing measures;
  • Maintaining safety stock and secondary suppliers for key components and spare parts to mitigate unforeseen disruptions to our supply chains and delivery times;
  • Keeping all key contact numbers fully operational to ensure that we are available to support our customers as required. Emergency contact details have been provided in several locations as an additional level of support;

2) Caring for our Customers and Communities – we are (cont’d):

  • Protecting the availability of your regular points of contact wherever possible, such as our Sales and Customer Service teams, and with that extending support and consultative services via video conferencing facilities;
  • Ensuring the continuity of our wetstock monitoring service by successfully transitioning our team of Insite360 wetstock analysts to remote working;
  • Channelling our marketing efforts into the creation of additional support resources for our customers, including safety and cleaning recommendations, and how-to guides;
  • Supporting our associates in their personal efforts to give back to their communities and those in need.

3) Ensuring the health of our business - we are:

  • Balancing Priorities 1) and 2) against financial actions and taking advantage of governmental relief programs where sensible to:
    • maintain our position as an essential business;
    • keep our production facilities and order books open;
    • ensure we can emerge in a strong position to scale up our support to customers post-COVID-19.

We fully understand that these are unprecedented times and will continue to do all we can to support our employees, communities and our customers. We also know that the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting our customers’ businesses in different ways. Whatever your situation, please reach out to your Country Manager to discuss how we can serve you and your customers best. We are here to help.

If you have additional questions please contact your In-Country manager or email us on euenquiries@gilbarco.com

Thank you for your continued support and all you are doing to keep the world moving.

Jason Lund
European Managing Director