Covid-19 Client Operations at Alert Level 3 (AKL) and Alert Level 2 (CHC) - 1 March 2021

March 1st, 2021

Following an announcement over the weekend by the Prime Minister and Director-General of Health, the greater Auckland area is now at Covid Alert Level 3, with the rest of the country at Covid Alert Level 2 due to the transmission of Covid-19 in the Auckland community. As a result, we have again enacted our Covid-19 Response Plan. At this stage, the above restrictions will be in place until 6am on Sunday, 7 March.

We, along with our freight partners, are well prepared to continue providing distribution services in a compliant and safe manner. As a reminder, the following restrictions will be in place under the current alert levels:

Alert Level 3 – Auckland warehouses

Social distancing and segregated shifts create the potential for disruption to processing, which we will continue to monitor and communicate accordingly. Currently these restrictions will include:

Allowing additional time for order processing – expect 1-3 days including delivery delays.
Implementation of earlier order cut off times (to be communicated case by case).
Warehouse visits by prior arrangement and for essential reasons only (please contact your Site Manager who can often help, avoiding the need to visit).
Deferring non-essential tasks including stocktakes and rework projects.
Strictly no customer collections until further notice.
All deliveries will be contactless.

We would ask that you please assist our Auckland warehouse teams by:

Reaching out to your customers to ensure they can safely receive contactless deliveries, they are aware that customer collections are unavailable, and that there may be delays receiving some orders.
Keeping in contact with your warehouse Site Manager, providing updates of your forecast order volumes, including any pending back orders
Refraining from any peak sales campaigns during the Alert Level 3 period

Alert Level 2 – Christchurch warehouses

The lower alert level offers fewer restrictions for our Christchurch warehouses; however, we also remain very vigilant and will maintain best practice social distancing and shift segregation protocols. Currently these restrictions will include:

Allowing additional time for order processing and additional transit times for all orders, in particular those consigned to the greater Auckland region.
Warehouse visits by prior arrangement and for essential reasons only (please contact your Site Manager who can often help, avoiding the need to visit).
Customer collections strictly by prior arrangement only and will remain contactless.
All deliveries will be contactless.

We would ask that you please assist our Christchurch warehouse teams by:

Reaching out to your customers to ensure they can safely receive contactless deliveries, they are aware that customer collections are unavailable, and that there may be delays receiving some orders.
Keeping in contact with your warehouse Site Manager, providing updates of your forecast order volumes, including any pending back orders

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we all play our part in again stamping out this virus. We are regularly monitoring the guidelines set down by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and encourage you to continue to visit our website for updates.

For further information on the Government restrictions and current Alert Levels please visit https://covid19.govt.nz/covid-19/restrictions/current-alert-level/