How Meiko is handling the coronavirus pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic is challenging society across the board and around the world. It is affecting our work, our families and our behaviour. We need only take a look at some of our largest customer groups to see the scale involved: the entire out-of-home market has been hit hard. In many countries, hotels and restaurants remain closed until further notice. Large events such as trade shows and concerts are being cancelled or long-term postponed. Owners and operators therefore face huge challenges as they work out how to survive financially. Certain hospitals in many countries are overwhelmed. They lack resources, workforce and equipment. We are deeply concerned by all of this news. We feel we have a responsibility to people, to our customers, to our partners and to our employees. This is in keeping with the ethos of our foundation and our values-driven culture

The virus the world is watching with bated breath

For now, business at Meiko Group headquarters in Offenburg, Germany, is carrying on mostly as normal. Production and dispatch are running to schedule; however, we expect to feel more pronounced effects in the medium term. Our main priority in this period is the health of our 2,600 employees around the world. We are keeping business running and keeping our employees informed on the latest developments by using a range of channels including e-mail, video broadcasts, online conferencing and our in-house Meiko app.

We are implementing social distancing measures everywhere in the world: any work that is not location dependent is carried out at home. This has been the case for quite a while now and it is how we are helping to slow the spread of the virus.

Our sales and service companies are affected by government-ordered shutdowns where these have been mandated, including in Italy, India, Malaysia and Austria. Even in these circumstances, our emergency team is on standby so that we can carry out urgent servicing work, especially in hospitals and other medical facilities, and we can supply these institutions with cleaning and disinfection appliances or warewashing technology. Assuring hygiene is a matter of preserving life where critically ill patients or the elderly are involved. That is why in February, in the early days of the outbreak in the Wuhan region, we decided to help equip emergency hospitals with our machines quickly and simply. And that is just one example.

The general trend is now moving back towards normality in China. Meiko production recommenced several weeks ago. The Meiko Service team can now move freely again within each province. And there are signs of hope: the first restaurants and hotels are starting to reopen.

We are always in contact with our customers, suppliers and local authorities so that we can respond to the rapidly changing conditions the pandemic is creating. This has worked well so far. A major reason why Meiko's future proof is our business structure as a foundation. Our goal, even in such times as these, is to support our customers and partners as best we can.

Meiko hygiene expertise

For Meiko, uncompromising hygiene is our first priority. This has become especially important recently. Our decades of experience in disinfecting medical devices has turned us into hygiene specialists – and we are in demand. This also goes for our commercial warewashing technology, which is coronavirus free at the end of the washing or cleaning process. We therefore offer hygiene assurance – for care staff, patients, residents and guests. The effectiveness of MEIKO technology against the new pathogen has been confirmed in a specialist report by German test laboratory HYGCEN GmbH. Further information about the safety of our products in relation to coronavirus SARS CoV-2 and our certificate.  https://www.meiko-uk.co.uk/all-about-hygiene

MEIKO Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG

Dr Stefan Scheringer                      Sebastian Hainz

CEO, MEIKO Group                        Vice President, Sales & Marketing