A shop display specialist has switched to making screens and face guards to help in the battle against coronavirus.
SDi has pivoted from making its usual range of sale and visual merchandising displays to offering hygiene products and services to its customers.
The company, which employs 113 people in Loughborough, says it has already made 260,000 face guards, while more than 10,000 pharmacy and checkout screens have been delivered to Boots and M&S.
Meanwhile it says 1500 sanitiser hand stations are currently in production for Tesco, Dixons Carphone and other retailers.
And it is supplying hundreds of thousands of visors to the NHS.
SDi has also teamed up with Staffordshire-based Addmaster to give it the capability to embed anti-microbial Biomaster technology into all of its products.
The company says that its product switch means it has been able to keep all of its production staff in work.
Matt Evans, Retail Sales Director of SDi, said: “We have always been a close partner to the retail sector and have been in constant discussions with them during the pandemic.
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"The conversations were mainly focused around protecting staff and customers who are working and shopping, so we immediately sprang into action to meet this challenge.
“Our specialist designers and production experts came up with a range of hygiene products that could solve some of these challenges, starting with protective face guards and then quickly evolving into pharmacy/check-out screens and sanitiser hand stations.”
“Manufacturing lines were adapted to ensure we could provide a single-source solution from start to finish. We’re talking volumes in the tens of thousands, maybe eventually hundreds of thousands.
“These products will help to protect people and potentially save lives, so, put simply, retailers couldn’t wait six weeks for them to come from overseas suppliers.”
“There is definitely a feeling that more businesses are starting to make plans about how they reopen when the lockdown eventually eases and hygiene will be at the forefront of their thoughts.”