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THE team in charge of the Iceland supermarket’s Swindon depots has spoken of how they dealt with a major Covid outbreak during the pandemic.
Dozens of staff at the distribution centre on Penzance Drive tested positive for coronavirus in the summer of 2020, which led to many others self-isolating.
GXO manages the site and worked with Swindon Borough Council to test hundreds of employees and contain the contagion as quickly as possible.
Speaking to the Adver this month, GXO business director Martin Atkinson said the safety measures put in place to stop the spread worked so well that a government taskforce from Downing Street used similar strategies when other outbreaks occurred at the Honda plant and Royal Mail centres.
Mr Atkinson said: “It was a very stressful time because this was one of the first big outbreaks in the Swindon area, so there was a lot of tension, but the council were very supportive, Steve Maddern [Swindon’s director of public health] did a really good job.
“It was absolutely critical to keep the depot running because if we stopped, 250 stores would run out of chilled food in two days and all food in a week.
“The department isolated everyone, increased hand-cleaning, changed car-sharing policies and shift schedules, and bio-misted everything to keep bugs off trays.
“The on-site staff had an excellent grasp of Track and Trace, so colleagues were called and isolated quickly if anyone tested positive.
“[Site manager] Kirk Giles and the team handled it so well that they were asked to explain to Number 10 what they had done and it became best practice for how to manage outbreaks.”
The coronavirus itself was not the only challenge facing the workers during this unusual time. The lockdowns prompted a surge in demand for supplies similar to what the warehouses usually see at Christmas.
Mr Atkinson added: “We normally spend weeks getting ready for our peak times, when our volume goes up by 20 per cent, but during Covid we went from normal to peak overnight, with no planning – and this demand was sustained for an entire year.
“Everyone working in groceries and the people in our stores had a year of hard work, it was not an easy time for the staff, but we could not be prouder of them.”
The pandemic also delayed the opening of GXO’s enormous second Iceland depot in Symmetry Park, which is now up and running.
