Dear Valued Customers, Partners and Stakeholders
The global spread of covid-19 is a challenge unlike anything seen in our lifetimes. This new disease has already shown itself to affect the most vulnerable members of our society and decisive and collective action to mitigate its impact is needed from governments, companies, and individuals alike.
ROCKWOOL was founded as a family business 80+ years ago and the health and wellness of our 11,700 colleagues, of our customers, suppliers, and business partners will always be our priority. We have been following developments closely and implementing appropriate steps to safeguard our colleagues’ health and the health of all our partners around the world while serving our customers. Currently, only critical activities are taking place onsite, while other office employees are required to work from home. All international travel and gatherings have been cancelled. While face-to-face meetings are not currently possible, we have moved onto digital platforms through which we will continue to engage with our customers and as close to ‘business as usual’ as is possible during this time.
We have been working hard to ensure that our 46 manufacturing facilities are healthy environments even in these difficult times, and have introduced additional measures including heightened cleaning, enhanced personal hygiene and more importantly, as our factories are spacious, the sufficient social distance to safeguard our colleagues. We are confident that the steps taken are robust. However, we must also be pragmatic and responsive to the rapidly-evolving situation both in terms of customer demand and local restrictions in individual countries. Therefore, from Friday this week, we will temporarily stop the production in a few countries, but continue with maintenance and logistic activities so that we are ready to bounce back as soon as the market conditions normalise. We will follow the situation in those countries closely, as well as in all 39 countries around the world where we operate, and take appropriate actions where needed. We will do everything necessary to supply our customers with as little disruption as possible.
These are extraordinary times, and there is little doubt that this pandemic will have an impact on our people, customers and other external stakeholders professionally and personally. However, we have established a strong central crisis management team and we are founded on a resilient local- for-local business model. True to our crisis management motto, Be the ROCK, we are determined to weather this storm; we will stand by our people, customers and external stakeholders; we will play our part in mitigating the spread of this disease; and, together, we are optimistic that we will come through this difficult crisis as strong as ever.
Yours faithfully
Jens Birgersson
President and Chief Executive Officer
ROCKWOOL Group
Sustainability report 2020
In our 2019 Sustainability Report you can read about our achievements, our progress against our goals and the new initiatives that we are taking to maximise our positive impact and minimise our operational impact.
