DSF Refractories & Minerals Ltd

COVID-19 Update June 2021

It is now more than a year since COVID-19 restrictions were first implemented across the UK and we are all still suffering the effects on our civil liberties caused by the virus and the restrictions to try to supress the virus spread.

We all hoped 2021 would be a better year than 2020 and although we are still being guided by our government to “work from home if we can work from home”, there does finally seem to be some signs of the country planning to open up again in the summer.

Vaccinations are progressing well in the UK and a significant percentage of our adult population has been vaccinated with either one or two doses. The latest plans suggest there will be removal of many of restrictions at the end of July but this is still under review. It seems likely it quite a while before there are any significant changes to restrictions on overseas travel that could make business return to a more normal state.

As before DSF is continuing to operate throughout the crisis in line with UK Government guidelines with staggered start, finish and break times and working within all the social distancing and enhanced hygiene policies that are essential to keeping everyone safe. Most of our office staff continue to work from home with a small core of people working from the office full time or part time, to facilitate production or to be a point of contact for any customer enquiries. We are grateful for the support we have received from all our employees; their attitude remains magnificent and the company owes them a great deal of thanks.

Many of our refractories’ customers normally visit the factory to inspect orders as part of their approval process. We are accepting visitors for essential visits which can include inspections but we are requesting our customers accept DSF inspection or a virtual inspection if it is possible even for UK customers. Due to quarantine restrictions, it is still really not practical for overseas customers to carry out their normal inspections at DSF. The UK government has a “traffic light” system in place which means visitors from many overseas countries must quarantine in proscribed hotels for 10 days at a significant expense to the traveller and there are extensive COVID testing requirements in place too.

As always, our Sales and Technical Teams are available for discussions but we are still not carrying out any international travel at the moment and only extremely limited travel within the UK. Our team members have become very adept at the use of Zoom, Teams and other video conferencing software. If you have any questions, please ask your normal point of contact. We are all working, available and ready to help. Please stay safe and best wishes from all at DSF.

Neale Parkin 24th June 2021

COVID-19 Update

January 2021 The first thing I would like to do is to is to wish all our employees, customers, suppliers and partners around the world a Happy New Year. We all hope 2021 will be a better year than 2020.

I also hope that everyone is safe and that you can all maintain good health through this crisis, which is still happening, and in the UK is at a very difficult phase. We all look forward to vaccinations taking place with a hope that later this year things can ease again. At DSF, like most people around the globe, we have become used to the new normal of working under the constraints imposed by the Covid-19 virus pandemic.

AS before DSF is continuing to operate throughout the crisis in line with UK Government guidelines with staggered start, finish and break times and working within all the social distancing and enhanced hygiene policies that are essential to keeping everyone safe.

Most of our office staff continue to work from home with a small core of people working from the office full time or part time, to facilitate production or to be a point of contact for any customer enquiries.

We are grateful for the support we have received from all our employees; their attitude has been magnificent and the company owes them a great deal of thanks.

We have good raw material stocks and we are grateful that our raw material suppliers and other contractors are working hard to support us. Brexit has been another issue for DSF, but we are working through it and deliveries are proceeding as normal. Our order book is good and we are recruiting new production operatives to increase our output.

Many of our refractories customers normally visit the factory to inspect orders as part of their approval process. We are accepting visitors for essential visits which can include inspections. However, we are requesting our customers accept DSF inspection or a virtual inspection if it is possible even for UK customers.

Due to quarantine restrictions, it has not been practical for overseas customers to carry out their normal inspections at DSF. We have worked closely with them to carry out and report DSF self-inspections to our customers’ requirements, using video virtual inspections, for particularly critical items, where required.

As always, our Sales and Technical Teams are available for discussions but we are not carrying out any International travel at the moment and only extremely limited travel within the UK. Our team members are becoming very adept at the use of Zoom, Teams and other video conferencing software. If you have any questions, please ask your normal point of contact. We are all working, available and ready to help. Please stay safe and best wishes from all at DSF.

Neale Parkin 12th January 2021

DSF Covid-19 Update – The UK Government have implemented a new national lockdown in England commencing today, 5th November until 2nd December.

As with the previous national lockdown, DSF are following government advice. Manufacturing can continue as long as public health advice and social distancing measures can be met. DSF have been operating in this way from the end of March but we are ensuring Covid-19 rules are reiterated, the safety of all people working at our site is the main priority. Essentially we are operating as before lockdown, with a skeleton staff available in the office and full production.

We are very busy currently and understand that many of our customers are critical suppliers to the medical, communication, food & beverages and construction industries. We remain committed and focused on supplying consistent high quality refractory materials to schedule.

For more information visit our website or for any Covid-19 related issues contact our Managing Director, Neale Parkin.

The first thing I would like to do is to again send my very best wishes to all our employees, customers, suppliers and partners around the world and we hope you can all maintain good health through this crisis, which is changing, but not going away.

At DSF, like most people around the globe, we have become used to the new normal of working under the constraints imposed by the Covid-19 virus pandemic. There has been some easing of lockdowns in the UK and most other European countries, but as a second wave is starting to hit Europe we can see the situation starting to worsen again.

DSF is continuing to operate throughout the crisis and we have now returned to a more normal shift pattern in the factory but we are still operating with staggered start, finish and break times and working within all the social distancing and enhanced hygiene policies that are essential to keeping everyone safe.

Many of our office staff continue to work from home but a significant core of people are working from the office full time or part time, to facilitate production or to be a point of contact for any customer enquiries.

We are very pleased with the actions of all our employees, their attitude has been magnificent and the company owes them a great deal of thanks.

We still have good raw material stocks and we are grateful that our raw material suppliers and other contractors are working hard to support us. We are also recruiting new production operatives to improve our output. We continue to take new orders as normal and we are continuing to work to the order delivery schedules we have already committed to. The constraints of working COVID safely have sometimes caused some minor delays, but customers have already been informed of these.

Many of our refractories customers normally visit the factory to inspect orders as part of their approval process. We are now accepting visitors for essential visits which can include inspections. However, with quarantine restrictions, it has not been possible to date for overseas visitors to carry out their normal inspections. We have worked closely with customers to carry out and report DSF self-inspections to our customers’ requirements, using video virtual inspections, for particularly critical items, where required.

As always, our Sales and Technical Teams are available for discussions, but, we are not carrying out any International travel at the moment. Our team members are becoming very adept at the use of Zoom, Teams and other video conferencing software. If you have any questions, please ask your normal point of contact. We are all working, available and ready to help.

Please stay safe and best wishes from all at DSF.

Neale Parkin 14th September 2020

I would firstly like to send all our employees, customers, suppliers and partners around the world our very best wishes and we hope you can all maintain good health through this crisis.

At DSF, like most people around the globe, we are getting used to the new normal of working under the constraints imposed by the Covid-19 virus pandemic. There has been some easing of lockdowns in some other European countries and there is talk of some other non-essential businesses reopening in the UK, DSF has continued to operate throughout the crisis and we are now producing at the same rate as before the pandemic hit the UK.

We have been successfully operating our new shift system for more than a month now, a system which minimises the number of people on site by having alternating shifts for our manufacturing, engineering and technical teams. Many of our office staff are working from home, but a small core of people are still working from the office to facilitate production or to be a point of contact for any customer enquiries.

We are very pleased with the actions of our employees, who have worked well within all the social distancing and enhanced hygiene policies that are essential to keeping everyone safe. Their attitude has been magnificent and the company owes them a great deal of thanks.

At DSF, we understand the importance of refractories as part of the supply chain to many industries and we are working hard to ensure our customers will get the products they need to keep their processes operating and to allow necessary repairs and rebuilds to take place as planned.

We have good raw material stocks and we are grateful that our raw material suppliers and other contractors are working hard to support us. We are taking new orders as normal and we are continuing to work to the order delivery schedules we have already committed to. Unfortunately there have been some delays, but customers have already been informed of these.

If you have any questions, please ask your normal point of contact. We are all still working, available and ready to help. Please stay safe and best wishes from all at DSF.

Neale Parkin 6th May 2020

The UK, like many other countries around the world, is in the grip of the Covid-19 virus pandemic. We would firstly like to send all our customers, suppliers and partners around the world our very best wishes and we hope you can all maintain good health through this crisis.

Business comes second in a situation like this, but we have a duty to our employees and to our many loyal customers to continue to operate as safely and effectively as possible.

We are following UK Government advice and they have deemed manufacturing should continue, as long as we can follow public health advice and ensure social distancing measures can be met.

In a press release from the World Refractories Association they say:

“Without refractories, important industries and the products they produce would not exist. Whether it is the ambulances we drive, the hospitals we use, the roads we rely on, the medical equipment that we need, the communications tools we use, the waste we need to incinerate, or the medicines we take, the world we know would not exist without refractories.”

At DSF, we understand the importance of refractories as part of the supply chain to facilitate the provision of medicines, essential construction and food and beverages.

To enable manufacturing to continue at DSF we have put in additional social distancing measures, moved to shift patterns that will reduce the number of employees on site at any one time by around 50% and employed thorough cleaning processes into our daily regimes. Staff will work from home wherever possible, but we will always have a point of contact in the commercial office to deal with any customer enquiries.

We will endeavour to work to the order delivery schedules we have already committed, any changes to order lead times will be relayed to customers immediately.

If you have any questions, please ask your normal point of contact. We are all here, available and ready to help. Please stay safe and once again best wishes from all at DSF.