Keeping up spirits whilst ensuring the business survives

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on people around the world. As we are faced with the realities of losing our loved ones and livelihoods, some businesses have found themselves in a position to help. B Corp, Macphie, is one of these businesses.

A family-owned food manufacturing company, Macphie’s food service orders quickly came to a halt as the crisis hit. Now, it is bottling thousands of units of hand sanitiser and has furloughed over 60% of staff. But spirits remain high as they find new creative ways to connect and have fun. We caught up with Macphie’s Chairman, Alastair Macphie, to find out more.

You recently switched from bottling sauces to hand sanitiser in order to supply key workers with essential supplies. How did this come about and how many units have you produced so far?

As the Coronavirus outbreak progressed, our foodservice sales stopped and when a local distillery reached out to us to support the production of much-needed hand sanitiser for frontline workers, we knew we could help. We quickly got to work, swapping sauces for hand sanitiser, shifting production, our bottling line and packing facilities to produce the new product. In just a few days, we had made and donated over 11,000 bottles to frontline care groups.

Following this initial project, we have partnered with several other organisations to produce as much of the product as possible and have so far contributed over 250,000 bottles into the supply chain since March.

This is a big shift for Macphie to go through during a global crisis. How did you know this was the right choice for the business? Did it require a change in mindset?

There was no doubt in our mind that this was the right move but of course it was a big change for everyone involved.

Getting through this crisis needs a can-do mindset and of course there was some scepticism at first. It usually takes us months to launch a new product and here we were launching an all-new concept within days.

Our team takes great pride in what we do so everyone wanted to get it right but we had to move quickly.

I’m proud of not only our people for adapting to the changes but our suppliers who helped make this happen. There was certainly a collective understanding of why we were doing what we were doing which is what made the difference in working out how we’d do it.

How did you have to adapt to make all this possible and what are the challenges to supplying bottles of hand sanitiser on such a scale?

This project hasn’t come without its challenges; from navigating unfamiliar labelling legislation to accessing the vital protective equipment needed to keep production going. At first, the alcohol duty alone almost forced the project to a standstill.

However, the opportunity has thrown us a lifeline to keep the business going while our food-to-go, bakery, foodservice and processing customers are forced into hibernation and this has given us the chance to support the nation in an incredible way.

It’s great that you’ve been able to pivot your business. Providing the much needed supplies still costs Macphie money, how will you continue to meet community needs and meet the costs you are incurring?

Working with Deeside Distillery and Calachem, we’re now fulfilling commercial orders for the Scottish government, NHS Scotland and some of the UK’s leading supermarkets. The scale of our production facilities (which are set up to produce industrial-sized packs of food ingredients) has allowed us to support the supply chain in a big way.

However, we have strong links with our local communities and our priority is to support them as much as possible. This week we delivered over 200 bottles to a community group which is providing hot meals and vital deliveries to over 200 vulnerable people. The group is currently going through around 30 litres of sanitiser per week and this donation has saved them approximately £2,000.

We’ve also donated around 60 bottles to CLAN Cancer Support, Ronald McDonald House Glasgow and Police Scotland. Our charity and school partners know to reach out whenever they’re in need too.

Sticking to what we know, our food ingredients have also proved critical for vulnerable children. Working with a local primary school, we’ve been donating baked goods to families who are no longer receiving free school meals following school closures.

By fulfilling the large commercial orders, we are able to keep the businesses going and keep donating supplies to local organisations in need.

We understand you had to make the difficult decision to furlough 60% of your team. Can you tell us a bit more about what this meant for your team?

This decision wasn’t easy but was absolutely necessary to protect the long-term future of the business and employment of our team. We also have a number of people working from home to limit the number of people on site and support social distancing.

On the whole, we’ve found that everyone has been incredibly understanding of the decisions we’ve had to make.

And to no surprise, those who are at home are desperate to keep in touch with what’s happening. While it’s tempting to get bogged down with the pressing tasks on your to-do list, we knew from the off that we had to take time to satisfy this appetite for information and stay connected with everyone out with the business.

How are you maintaining morale and staying connected with those working and more importantly, not working?

Maintaining a connection with our team is critical. We have made some huge changes in our business in a short number of weeks so that we can keep everyone in the loop.

We’ve been using email and video calls to provide regular updates across the business, including those on furlough but we’re revamping our usual business bulletins to inject some fun during these unprecedented times. Here are some of the ways we’re connecting and having fun:

• Launching a ‘Ready Steady Cook’ challenge which sees our chef come up with recipes using whatever’s left in our colleagues’ fridges
• Running a first virtual quiz, hosted by our CEO in a sparkly bow tie — this went down really well
• Hosting a company-wide video workout
• Virtual treasure hunts for the team to do with each other or family and friends
• Sharing an upbeat music playlist on Spotify, including requests from staff
• Sending out packs of bakery mixes to help keep families entertained during lockdown

We’ve received great feedback so far, with real appreciation for being kept in the loop.

Protecting our mental health is just as important as our physical health. As well as keeping spirits high through jovial updates, our occupational health team is calling round staff members to check in and provide relevant advice and support.

It’s inspiring to hear how you’ve adapted in these extraordinary circumstances and maintain such a positive outlook. What key lessons will you take away from this experience and how do you think it will shape the future of Macphie?

Despite a headcount of nearly 280 people, we’ve always felt like a close-knit team. However pulling together through this crisis has broken down further barriers that we didn’t know were there.

Weekly business updates directly from the CEO are being well received and while we do a lot to communicate already through our intranet and monthly newsletters, I think this regular business update is definitely something we should maintain.

This experience is teaching us more ways to stay connected and have fun apart, with the use of video calling and we’ve all agreed we should be doing more of this even when this is all over.

It’s during difficult times like these that the values and fundamentals of your team are tested and for us, the true supportive culture of our business has shone through. Everyone has been incredibly understanding of the difficult decisions we’ve had to make and the team is willing to go the extra mile to keep each other safe and make sure the business survives.

We might still have a long way to go before reaching some form of normality but I’m confident this experience will see us emerge as an even stronger team.

A big thank you to Alastair for answering our questions and sharing this inspiring story on behalf of Macphie.