Service update from the Furlong Flooring team
It’s now nearly two years since all our businesses had to adapt to the sudden and potentially catastrophic lockdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
During the first lockdown, we took the decision to furlough the majority of our teams, keeping on a skeleton staff to support our customers as much as possible. As soon as we were able, we re-opened our distribution centres, helping retailers and contractors to get back to business as smoothly as possible.
We know this was important to our customers, because we’ve heard directly from them:
“When we were all hit by the pandemic, and the country turned to turmoil, without hesitation all bar one of our suppliers closed the doors and stopped answering phone calls and emails. Except for Furlong, who manned their operation with a reduced workforce to ensure continuity was maintained.”
Like all businesses, we are now seeing the impact of the strains that Covid, along with other issues, have had on our supply chain. Like all businesses that operate a delivery fleet, we are seeing a shortage of drivers, and like all businesses, we are adjusting to managing delays on product arriving into our warehouses.
We’re not quite like all flooring businesses, though. We are lucky enough to be both a carpet manufacturer and a distributor, which means that we have complete control over these parts of our supply chain. And with three distribution centres around the UK, we can work together to make sure we do our best to meet our service commitments.
And we know that things like consistent and reliable deliveries are one of the most important parts of that service. Customers really appreciate the fact that they know we’ll deliver when we say we can:
“The fact that distribution of products is handled directly by Furlong employees using their own company fleet of vehicles, not reliant on third parties to deliver products, results in a consistent delivery service, three times a week.” John Spreadbury, Group Managing Director, Inside Contractors.
So, as we continue to adapt to new business conditions, we haven’t forgotten that our regular deliveries and responsive customer service is a big part of retailers and contractors choosing to become account holders with Furlong Flooring – and we’ll continue to work hard to make sure we meet our current commitments and improve on them wherever we can.
Thank you to all our account holders for such loyal support over the past few years – it’s shown us how lucky we are to work in the UK-wide family that is the flooring industry.
If you have any questions, please do contact your sales rep or nearest distribution centre:
