Greeting card printer to many, the Sherwood Group has joined the fight against coronavirus, by investing into a new production line to make 250,000 protective face coverings a week in its Nottingham factory.
Richard Bacon, managing director of the Sherwood Group commented: “As a Group, we pride ourselves on innovation, being proactive and our ability to quickly respond to market needs. We are delighted to be able to support the fight against Covid-19, producing high quality British made face coverings. It is so important for the country during this pandemic and I am proud of the team in getting this up and running”.
The Group has invested £200,000 in the new machinery in response to the country’s increasing demand for protective face coverings. The recently installed machine has retained BRC ‘AA’ High Hygiene Category accreditation, following a rigorous inspection in the midst of Covid-19 pandemic. The 3-ply single use face coverings are made from non-woven, melt-blown material with 95% bacterial filtration. The face coverings are suitable to use by general public, manufacturing staff as well as those working in non-healthcare settings.
Richard assures however that Sherwood’s new face-coverings manufacturing will in no way impact on the company’s greeting card production and packaging.
“We have been fully operational since the Covid-19 outbreak and have been continuously working around the clock to meet the needs of the industries we serve. As we as the greeting card community we are also seen a providing an essential link in the supply chain for food packaging too. We undertook vital steps to ensure enhanced health and safety measures from the start of the outbreak, and we continually reassess our internal procedures to ensure health and safety of our staff, suppliers and customers, and to continue the production in a safe environment for the products.”
Sherwood’s move into face coverings is linked to KMD Company, a packaging solutions company which relocated to the printers’ site in 2018 to allow both businesses to offer a wider range of products and services, capitalising on their expertise and resources.
In addition, KMD Company has launched an own brand, personal protective equipment (PPE), smartshield that has been designed by the Group’s in-house Innovation team. The face shields are one-piece, single use and independently tested and certified to EU CE standard.
The greeting card printing side has done itself proud on the PPE front. At the start of the first lockdown, Windles turned some of its attentions to producing protective face visors, which many in the industry ordered for their teams. (https://www.pgbuzz.net/card-trade-urged-to-help-windles-get-ppe-visors-where-needed/) In addition, Elle Media also added a PPE string to its bow too as part of its Bright Rainbow initiative which includes comfortable ear protectors/face mask extension devices, face shields and other frontline PPE in support for carers and healthcare workers in NHS, care homes and hospices. (https://www.pgbuzz.net/elle-medias-brightrainbow-initiative-birthday-greetings-for-captain-tom-cardie-call-out-for-the-nhs/).
Top: The face coverings production line in the Sherwood Group’s Nottingham premises.
