Snow-hit distributors battle on
No repeat of January's carnage, despite heavy snow in parts of the country
Distributors claim their efforts to plan ahead have ensured it is business as usual this week, despite some battling against up to two feet of snow.
Those based in south Yorkshire and the East Midlands have been among the worst hit. Chesterfield-based Exclusive Networks and Arrow ECS’ Nottingham-based security practice both set up half their staff to work from home this morning.
Nick Bannister, divisional director for security at Arrow ECS, said the distributor also put up several staff in hotels last night.
“We planned for it and operationally we are fine,” he said. “We have very clear disaster recovery plans in place, which allow us to adapt very quickly to changing situations and people could work from home and access the systems they needed.”
Stuart Reay, managing director at Exclusive Networks, said: “It was quite stressful with it being the last day of the month yesterday. But we are fully operational.”
The Met Office today issued heavy-snow warnings for vast swathes of the east of England and Scotland, threatening to disrupt business further tomorrow.
Simon Evetts, operations manager at Diss-based distributor Midwich, admitted deliveries may be impacted in some parts of the country. “The larger towns and cities are generally still accessible, but rural areas are more difficult to reach. And although local areas may not be directly affected by snow, related transport hubs and networks may still be impacted. Despite the weather, we are still fulfilling the vast majority of consignments.”
Simon Welch, product marketing director at Azlan, said: “It is not helpful. If you're in the business of moving physical goods around, inevitably there will be an impact in the supply chain. But this is good news, particularly for our UC practice. Every year this happens and the interest [in remote working technologies] rises steeply.”
Jon Atherton, vice president commercial at Telford-based EntaTech, said: “Certain depots around the UK are either closed or trading on a low level due to the snow and ice. The sales people within EntaTech are fully up to date with what areas are affected."