A letter to the Westkey | Xibita community
Over the past 12 days, our entire team has been focused on the implementation of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
First and foremost, we want to convey our utmost commitment to the safety of our staff and their families, our valued clients, our suppliers and the wider community.
The situation, as we all know, is very fluid and changing daily. We are responding accordingly and will continue to adjust our practices to align with the requirements and recommendations of our regional and national public health authorities.
We will be providing updates through our website and social media channels as our response to COVID-19 evolves.
As of today, we have taken the following measures:
Cleaning and Sanitization Measures
Starting March 12th, we implemented a series of strict cleaning and sanitizing measures throughout our facilities which involve all staff as well as our contractors and delivery teams.
These measures are being closely coordinated and overseen by Tom Little VP of Operations in British Columbia and Kevin Colville VP of Operations in Alberta.
Their direct reports are:
- Reg Topham Plant Manager in Burnaby
- Steve Ettridge Plant Manager in Kelowna
- Randy Hannah Plant Manager in Edmonton.
Restricting Access to our Facilities
We are restricting outside access to our facilities to essential visits only.
Onsite customer and supplier visits, including press checks, tours and meetings are no longer permitted until further notice. We continue to follow our strict brand management practices relying on current signed off in plant copies, with of our Sales and Customer Support teams ready to ensure all quality expectations are met.
Effective, Friday March 18th and until further notice, our reception doors at all 3 manufacturing facilities will remain locked at all times.
All pick-up and deliveries will be restricted to our Shipping and Receiving areas only.
Protecting our Staff within our Workplace
We are implementing work-from-home measures for staff wherever possible.
Effective today, our Canada Wide Sales team is mandated to work from home with only critical service and production teams remaining in the building. Other members of our office staff are working from home wherever possible, or in the process of being transitioned.
Within our workplace we are adopting social distancing measures, restricting meetings and ensuring our staff are able to conduct their duties at a recommended distance from others. Employees who have any symptoms of sickness have been directed to self quarantine for 14 days minimum. They are monitored and supported through this time – no employee or contact with any employee has tested positive for Covid.
Current Operations and Business Continuity Planning
At this time, Westkey | Xibita is operating at full capacity with no anticipated interruptions within our supply chain.
Given the extreme measures taken throughout the world, including Canada and the US, we understand and accept the possibility of a direct impact to our operations. As part of our business continuity planning, Westkey | Xibita has established partner facilities within Canada and the US to enable continuity of production and we are preparing for this possible scenario should the need arise.
We are closely monitoring the situation and in ongoing dialogue with our partner facilities to adjust our business continuity plans as regional and national measures are announced.
Additional Business Continuity Action Items
- Preparation and distribution of an Emergency Contact list so that when an emergency occurs, whether it is in one of your offices, in our warehouse, or in our customer service team, all parties will know whom to contact and what to do
- Electronic file storage in multiple locations, both on-site and off-site to protect your information and our files in the event of an emergency or natural disaster.
- Heightened schedule of maintenance of equipment and systems to assure you of continued improvements in our systems and to inform you of any scheduled downtime ahead of time.
- Redundancy and backup of manufacturing capacity between our four primary production centres: Edmonton, Burnaby, Richmond, and Kelowna for rotary, digital and commercial print to ensure appropriate production capacity.
- Sourcing of materials from multiple suppliers: i.e. paper, packaging to enable best pricing and to control price increases from our suppliers
- Agreements with multiple distribution and freight partners to ensure business continuity
- In-house production of inks to reduce storage of flammable items and improve our quality control
- Review and preparation of Gap Analysis reporting by qualified outside consultants to keep our workers safe and to keep us in compliance with accepted OHS standards and Health Canada Covid 19 protocols.
- In-house training on Business Continuity processes to ensure ongoing employee awareness and to provide assurance to our clients that we truly are “customer-first” in focus and practice while keeping safe.
We are committed to keeping all stakeholders informed and updated on our response to the COVID-19 outbreak and in doing our part in the global fight against this virus. As we collectively work through these challenges, we thank you for your ongoing business and support. Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions or feedback.
For additional information, please see our statement regarding Westkey’s status as an Essential Service:
Westkey Essential Service Statement
Alfie Karmal
President & CEO
akarmal@westkeygraphics.com