March 20, 2020
Dear Valued Customer and Partner,
As the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to escalate around the world, we are writing to share SCT’s commitments to you, our customers and partners.
The safety of our community – customers, partners and team members, is our primary concern.
SCT is committed to a vigilant and painstaking approach in running our business under the given circumstances, based on the latest advice from the World Health Organization. In addition, we are implementing the recommended guidelines of local Governments in the locations where we operate to minimize the risk of further spread.
Our corporate and response teams are continuously monitoring the situation.
First and foremost, our plan prioritizes the health and safety of our team members, so we can continue to deliver the products you count on and support our customers. Considering the most recent guidance from the World Health Organization (“WHO”) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”), many team members who can perform their jobs remotely are now working from home. We’ve also offered paid emergency leave for our team members should they need it. And we’ve suspended business travel, as well as restricted non-essential visitors to SCT facilities.
SCT is a BRCGS AA rated food contact packaging company. Our BRCGS programs are always in place to ensure the safety of our team members, customers, and product. While all our programs are designed with customer and product safety in mind, we are giving extra focus to the following areas during this time.
- Plant Cleaning. We have doubled our normal daily BRCGS cleaning and sanitizing schedules to include all production equipment at shift start-up. In addition, we are sanitizing all our door handles, common areas and kitchens, water fountains, and time clocks twice per shift.
- Visitor Control. Our BRC visitor control policies have been tightened to include a COVID-19 screening questionnaire that must be completed and evaluated prior to granting access to the facility.
- Personal Hygiene. Our team members are already required to wash and sanitize their hands and follow all applicable Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP’s) prior to entering production areas and must wear the proper PPE, including safety glasses, aprons, and hairnets in required areas.
- Illness Reporting. We have updated our required team member illness reporting policy to reflect current CDC, OSHA, and local health department guidelines for handling actual and potential cases of COVID-19.
- Suppliers. We are communicating with our raw material suppliers to ensure they are being proactive in preventing the exposure of our raw materials to virus-contaminated individuals and surfaces.
- Truck Drivers. Our finished-goods transport drivers are in full compliance with all required customer virus mitigation procedures.
- Staying Informed. BRCGS requires that we stay abreast of current industry issues. We are constantly monitoring the WHO, CDC, the BRCGS website, and our local, county and city COVID-19 pages for updates.
With regard to shipping, our private fleet and truck drivers, the following procedures have been strengthened:
- No inbound drivers allowed on any SCT dock
- In each warehouse drivers are not allowed to enter the facility past a designated area at the point of entry
- Drivers at SCT’s Distribution Center address the Clerk on duty through a protective window
- Gloves and hand sanitizer have been provided when exchanging paper work
- SCT private fleet drivers have been provided with gloves
- SCT private fleet drivers have been advised to report any illness and not to report to work if ill
- As with all SCT team members they must be symptom free for 24 hours without the use of meds
- SCT private fleet mechanics have been issued gloves and must have gloves on prior to entering a tractor
- Hand washing reinforced via postings
These precautionary measures have been taken to limit the potential spread of the virus, to support our team members, and to ensure that we maintain our ability to serve you, our customer, for the long term. Our senior leadership team remains vigilant and is monitoring the situation in real time and responding rapidly as conditions evolve.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve you during this challenging time. We value your trust and your partnership. We are in this together.