BARRIE, Ont. — Napoleon jumped on the chance to help a neighboring company keep up with surging demand for medical essentials; Napoleon workers swap out manufacturing grills, fireplaces and HVAC equipment for face shields amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

To meet the surging demand for essential medical equipment, a Barrie based medical supply company made the decision to increase their production at short notice. In order to accomplish this, they needed a qualified workforce.

“We wanted to help however our facilities are not setup for the product required for medical equipment so we quickly found how we can help by partnering with a local medical equipment producer. We have trained and re-focused Napoleon manufacturing workers to really help medical equipment colleagues deliver on surging demand at a critical time” says Stephen Schroeter, Co-CEO for Napoleon. “We are so proud of our team for their willingness to volunteer to help where help is needed and put themselves on the frontline of this crisis“ he adds.

There are 50 Napoleon associates covering four shifts each day including midnights. The team is providing much needed support in the areas of material handling, machine operations, assembly, engineering, quality control as well as team leadership and supervisory support.

“I couldn’t be prouder to be a Napoleon team member during this worldwide pandemic. I normally work on building fireplaces and have been employed for 19 years. I have volunteered to work with the medical equipment company and am so grateful for the opportunity to help.” Lindsay R, Napoleon Associate.

The Napoleon team is primarily focused on assembling and packaging face shields which provide a wide range of protective coverage for healthcare workers including splash protection which significantly reduces the risk of contamination and protects them against high level diseases, such as COVID-19.

In addition, Napoleon is leveraging its global supply chain partners to expedite the delivery of urgent and essential medical equipment for local hospitals and working attentively to support government agencies to assist further.

At times like this, working together and lending each other support needs to be on the forefront of our minds; we absolutely encourage other Canadian companies to do the same.

Stephen Murdoch,

Vice President, Public Relations

Enterprise Canada

Email

Office: 905.346.1232

Mobile: 289.241.3997

www.napoleon.com