Interket UK has impressed customers with its successful deployment of a disaster recovery protocol.
The Derbyshire-based label manufacturer was forced to evacuate its Whaley Bridge site on 2 August after the dam wall holding back Toddbrook Reservoir suffered a partial collapse. The 85,000sqft site is the largest employer in Whaley Bridge, manufacturing both on-roll and sheeted self-adhesive labels.
The situation meant Interket had to implement a disaster recovery procedure which had rarely been tested. UK sales and operations director Tim Pattison headed up the deployment of the contingency plan along with the designated team, some of whom are local residents so were affected both professionally and personally.
‘This unprecedented event tested our staff and the wider community,’ Mr Pattinson explained. ‘Our immediate priority was to follow the instructions of the Environment Agency and evacuate the buildings whilst at the same time ensuring we instigated our three stage contingency plan. Thankfully the potential disaster was avoided due to the hard work of the RAF, Environment Agency and Emergency Services who were outstanding.
‘From a business perspective I am very pleased with the way our business continuity procedure was deployed. We opened several channels of communication including dedicated groups on social media channels to ensure our stakeholders were updated every step of the way. We were overwhelmed with the community support from both our local and industry networks.’
Customers were quick to complement the company on how they handled the potential crisis. One such customer was Tony Gresty, managing director from Westbrook Industrial, who stated ‘I cannot commend the team at Interket highly enough. Under extreme pressure they managed to maintain communication rescheduling orders via remote access to their operational planning and stock systems.’
