Company Statement: COVID-19

In response to the increasing risks associated with Coronavirus, Nationwide Platforms has created an internal Contingency Management Forum to ensure our organisation has planned for, and takes all appropriate actions to ensure that both the risk of an outbreak of Coronavirus in any of our locations is minimised and that corrective action plans are in place for such an eventuality.  These plans and actions are designed to enable effective business continuity and maintain employee safety. These plans are primarily being developed in line with the latest government guidance.
 
Nationwide Platforms continues to assess developments with respect to this risk. Firstly, and most importantly, we continue to monitor the situation in the affected countries in which our supply chain operates. We are taking appropriate measures to enable us to continue to provide our customers with the industry-leading service and support they have come to expect of Nationwide Platforms throughout this situation.
 
We currently maintain a significant inventory of spares and parts in all of our depots, with a mix of both owned and consignment stock. Our stock levels are designed with a generous safety buffer to enable us to continue to deliver our business in most operating conditions, with no negative impact to our customers.
 
Our inventory supply arrangements are managed in conjunction with our external service partners and suppliers, with whom we have long-standing, strong relationships. In addition, we have robust supply chains, with many dual-source options in place. This means we do not anticipate any challenges regarding spares availability in the short to medium term. Our internal systems enable us to have clear visibility of inventory across all of our business locations throughout the UK and our overseas territories, thus providing us with additional flexibility of supply from within our global stockholding should a stock shortfall arise.
 
Assuming the current COVID19 virus outbreak is to persist over an extended period, we have mechanisms in place to review and prioritise maintenance decisions to ensure we focus on assets which maximise availability and services for our customers.
 
Nationwide Platforms introduce new machines into our fleet periodically via our wide supplier base with a global manufacturing footprint. Should the supply of new machines be impacted by a restriction on imports, we have invested heavily in recent years, and are confident that our existing modern fleet will continue to meet customer requirements.
 
We realise this situation remains very dynamic and develops day-to-day. We will continue to provide updates as we learn more and will confirm further details should new information come to light.