When did you reopen?

Stayed open throughout all of COVID 19.

How many staff do you employ, and how many are still on furlough?

23 staff, no one was furloughed.

What did you have to do pre-opening to prepare?

Whilst remaining open we put COVID awareness / social distancing signs outside of our showroom for the public to read before entering. Our showroom states that only 1 customer is to enter the showroom at a time. There is a hand sanitiser stand outside the premises for customers to sanitise before entering, once the customer has entered the showroom they have to stay within the cordoned off area when they walk in.

Staff members are to sanitise regularly and take/ record their temperature every morning. Also to follow social distancing guidelines.

What are you doing differently now to help you trade?

During the lockdown period our Karcher section of our business was closed as this was deemed non-essential by the government. Due to this we offered a home delivery service for Karcher equipment as people couldn’t come visit our showroom.

Our cleaning and hygiene products have continually boosted in sales due to Coronavirus. However, some items are proving difficult to get and we have had to source alternatives from elsewhere to still provide customers with what they need. For example: We would stock Cutan Hand Sanitiser but this is all being supplied direct to the NHS and we are unable to get stock at the moment. We sourced sanitiser from a local company in Kircubbin – Echlinville Hand Sanitiser to provide customers with product.

What innovative methods/approaches have you come up with or are thinking about doing?
None - Trying to survive during these times with increased demand & price increases.

What nice/interesting stories can you tell us about this time for your business or regarding staff & or customers, both during lockdown & since re-opening?

We where supposed to launch our new website and app in March but unfortunately due to the virus we had no time to implement this as we were struggling with the high demand and how busy things where so this had to be pushed back. We are hoping the website and app will go live by the end of July.