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Covid-19

Covid-19

Playing our part in our communities

Last updated: 22 July 2021

We have served our communities for over 228 years and throughout the Covid-19 pandemic we have been committed to continuing to play our part in the communities we serve.

We are extremely proud of our colleagues who have done an outstanding job throughout this challenging period and their health and wellbeing continues to be at the forefront of everything we do.

As lockdown restrictions are eased across the UK, we continue to operate in line with government guidance and advice. All of our High Street stores are now open, including over 200 Post Offices providing the communities they serve with access to vital banking and postal facilities. In addition, our colleagues across our hospital stores continue to serve and support frontline NHS workers, providing food, drinks and grocery products.

Our colleagues and customers health and wellbeing continues to be our number one priority and our stores continue to operate with precautionary measures in place. Further information, including our risk assessments, is detailed below.

 

Protecting our colleagues and customers

We are very proud of our colleagues who are doing an outstanding job in serving our customers. Their health and wellbeing remains our key priority and we have continued to develop and update our safety measures across our stores in line with new government guidelines and advice in each part of the UK.

Stores have effective safety measures in place, which include:

  • Face coverings are welcomed in our stores in England and we are continuing to provide PPE for colleagues' use, including masks and face visors
  • All customers must wear a face covering while in our stores in Scotland and Wales, unless they are exempt. Customers who forget their face covering will be offered a free disposable mask prior to entering the store
  • Hygiene stations at store entrances with hand sanitiser for customers
  • Protective screens at till points
  • Procedures for monitoring the numbers on site in our stores
  • Enhanced cleaning schedules prioritising contact areas that are likely to be most frequently touched, e.g. chip-and-pin devices, self-contained tills, lift call buttons, door handles, etc.
  • Amended procedures for re-merchandising stores, to minimise the need for colleagues and customers to be in close proximity 
  • Publication of guidance through the use of posters in prominent locations on the actions colleagues must take if they or members of their immediate household develop symptoms. We have also issued best practice behaviours to adopt with regard to maintaining regular hand washing

Customers can also shop online with us at www.whsmith.co.uk. 

The wellbeing of our colleagues' mental health continues to remain a priority and we have shared reminders with all of our colleagues across our stores, head offices and distribution centres on how to access our wide-ranging support plan. This includes our Employee Assistance Programme to support with counselling services, the WHSmith Benevolent Fund to support employees and their families with financial hardship, as well as access to trained Mental Health First Aiders across our organisation in the UK.

 

Supporting our National Health Service

At the start of the pandemic, we increased our support for NHS key workers during this critical period.

We have donated 14,000 notepads and pens to support front-line NHS healthcare workers at the NHS Nightingale Hospital in London.

We introduced a 20% NHS discount in our stores throughout the first lockdown and following months. The discount was a huge success, with over £2.5m in discount being provided to NHS staff across this period, which we were proud to have delivered.

We collaborated with Sainsbury's to bring over 90 additional Sainsbury's grocery products into 80 WHSmith hospital stores, enabling NHS staff to obtain the items they need with greater ease.

Our hospital stores have also offered free essentials to NHS staff, including bottled water that has been donated to support key workers by our suppliers.

 

Supporting our local communities

The WHSmith Trust, a registered charity, has donated £40,000 to Royal Voluntary Service's national emergency appeal to support its efforts in providing a lifeline to tens of thousands of elderly and vulnerable people, now and in the months to come. This donation has supported its team of volunteers across the country to help people to stay well at home and access the healthcare support they need.

We also made stock donations to support local communities:

  • During the Easter period in 2020, we donated a large number of confectionery and Easter eggs to community hubs, schools, ambulance stations and hospitals across the country
  • Over £200,000 of stock has been donated into the community by our High Street stores
  • Our Travel stores have donated over £150,000 of food stock to registered charity FareShare to support them with their Coronavirus response effort to deliver food to vulnerable people
  • We have been supporting hospital communities with individual donation requests. This has included donating laptops to Great Western Hospital, local to our High Street Head Office in Swindon, to support its front-line, clinical and support teams

 

For our Store Risk Assessment please click here.

For our Distribution Centre Risk Assessment please click here.