Covid-19 coronavirus: Demand for perspex screens soars as supermarkets prepare for lockdown

Name: Local Focus: 'Tonight I will have a cry and that's it' - local business owners need kindness too
Uploaded: 2020-03-25T15:41:57+13:00
Duration: 196 s
Description: Local businesses are vulnerable during the Covid-19 outbreak. Made with funding by NZ On Air.

By Aimee Shaw

Business Reporter·NZ Herald·

25 Mar, 2020 12:18 AM2 mins to read

Local businesses are vulnerable during the Covid-19 outbreak. Made with funding by NZ On Air.

The company behind the perspex screens that are set to become a staple in all the shops that will remain open during the four-week lockdown period says business has increased tenfold.

Auckland-based Onform Signs, which manufactures signs for commercial use, has experienced a surge in demand for perhaps its most simple signs: clear perspex screens, designed to create a protective barrier between retail staff and customers.

Protective screens are being rolled out to diaries, supermarkets, among other essential shops. Photo / Supplied

Jared Percival, sales director at Onform Signs, says the Onehunga-based firm has manufactured over thousands of screens for Chemist Warehouse, Unichem, Foodstuffs.

Other clients it has made the screens for include doctors' surgeries, Countdown, and some independent fuel stations.

As of noon, it has manufactured 3500 screens today.

Percival anticipates a further surge in orders to come from dairies and petrol stations who in addition to supermarkets and pharmacies have been deemed essential and will remain open during the lockdown following the escalation to Covid-19 Alert Level 4.

Onform's screens installed in a Chemist Warehouse store Photo / Supplied

"Sales have gone up drastically since the Level 4 announcement, but we are keeping up with supply with a one- to two-day turn around time from raw material to finished product installed New Zealand wide," Percival told the Herald.

"We normally made acrylic letters along with other signs for businesses, but have pivoted our company to help fight CV-19 and stop the spread."

Percival said the company had been flooded with orders from essential retailers and had enough orders to keep its team of 20 busy manufacturing for the next 48 hours.

"We currently have two teams of ten each time working at two factories to fulfil orders. We are no longer offering an installation service, and are relying on couriers and trucks to get goods around New Zealand. We have even given some of our vehicles to customers so their management can drive the goods to their stores around NZ as soon as possible."