COVID-19 Update - 23rd May 2020
Dear Customers and Friends,
I hope you are all keeping well and staying safe.
I'd just like to update you all on how things have been going at Newblinds.co.uk, and what our customers can expect now that the lock-down is starting to be eased.
Whilst we were told to "Stay Home"...
During the global COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lock down, we have continued to operate and fullfill orders as best we can. Although we closed our factory and offices, we've been running with a skelton staffing working from home, answering calls and emails from spare rooms and kitchen tables; sampling, fabricating and dispatching from home workshops and garages.
We've continued to manufacture and dispatch fly screens, although lead times have been longer than promised and expected due to reduced staffing and delays with materials incoming from suppliers in the EU. If you have experienced a delay with your product, we can only apologise.
As advertised, the majority of our made-to-measure blind production had ceased due to factory and supplier closures.
Since we've been told to "Stay Alert"...
Thankfully, production has resumed on the majority of our products. We do have a significant backlog of orders, but we are working hard to clear these as soon as possible and get back on track and to reasonable lead times. We expect manually operated blinds and fly screens to be the first products to have the backlog cleared, followed by automated blinds.
It's going to take a couple of weeks, we hope, until things are back on track with all products.
For those of you placing new orders, we've published what we believe to be realistic lead times going forward on each product page.
If I could ask one thing during this period of time. Please be patient.
Unless it's super urgent, please hold off from contacting us to chase your order. We have reduced staffing in our home offices and as a result it is difficult to keep up with all of the very polite requests for updates that we are receiving. Rest assured, we are working through orders in the order in which they were received and your product will be delivered as soon as possible. Most of our products are custom made to order and there is a supply chain (UK and EU) for our materials, which are still under strain.
This has been a very challenging time for everyone and we understand that delays with your products can be yet another cause of stress. But please show our team patience, consideration and understanding.
And please know that by giving us your custom and support, you are helping a small family business continue to operate during a very challenging period.
Best wishes,
Tim Pendleton
Managing Director - Newblinds.co.uk Limited