Wednesday, 25th March 2020
Cenvet Update – Business as
unUsual
Cenvet is an Australian owned company that celebrates its 60th year
in business this year and like you ….. we want to protect the 200+ Australians
we employ, our customers and our workplaces from Covid-19.
With Covid-19 reshaping the way we live and the way we trade, I wanted to give you an update on what Cenvet Australia is currently doing to strengthen our supply chain and maintain the distribution of products to veterinary practices over the next 8-10 weeks.
“Peace of mind” comes with facts and policies so let me explain what we have implemented:
- Social Distancing
- Ongoing Supply
- Preferred Client Policy
- Demand Surges
- Deliveries
- Restricted Practice Visits
- Amendments to Cenvet Australia’s Supply & Credit Return Policy
- Warehouse shutdowns for Additional Cleaning
Social Distancing
Whilst I appreciate several suppliers have introduced a “work from home” policy for many of their staff, we believe it’s now more important than ever that our clients have access to up to date information and timely responses to customer service requests. Just like your business, the best way for us to deliver a high level of service is to keep our essential teams onsite with full access to our information systems and client base.
To protect our staff and minimise the chance of Covid-19 affecting our ability to deliver products to you with minimal interruption, we have moved some of our back office staff away from our main distribution centres and created new work groups with increased social distancing to significantly limit the opportunity for Covid-19 to affect our operations.
Ongoing Supply
Our purchasing teams are regularly in contact with our suppliers regarding product supply and stockouts. Apart from toilet paper, cleaning products, masks, sanitisers and protective clothing, we are not aware of any other major items that will be a potential problem moving forward. However, as any new information becomes available, we will keep you up to date and informed on possible supply issues with regular emails and phone contact.
Preferred Client Policy
In the event that products are in short supply or short delivered from manufacturers, our company policy is that preferred loyal clients and CenSational members will be supplied in preference to other customers.
Demand Surges
Like many businesses, we are experiencing demand surges on a variety of products especially food and cat litter. Demand for these items is currently exceeding our Christmas volumes and our stock holdings are being increased to support the higher sales levels. We appreciate that the demand surges are being driven by pet owners purchasing more stock in-clinic but to the best of our knowledge ….. there is no stock shortage of these products especially ranges manufactured in Australia and from Australian ingredients.
Deliveries
Please be patient with us. The increased demand for many products is now double what we had forecasted for this time of year. Our warehouses are processing orders as quickly as possible but some of the shipments are so large, our delivery drivers are having trouble fitting everything into their vans and/or trucks. In these situations, orders are being split with preference given to urgent medical drugs as opposed to food and bulky items. We are also expecting some delivery delays as many transport companies and couriers come to terms with Covid-19 and the need to amend many of their protocols and procedures to help protect their workers. These new rules and workflows are slowing down deliveries although we anticipate things returning to normal over the medium term as everyone gets used to the new way of doing business.
Restricted Practice Visits
Cenvet Area Managers have been asked to minimise practice visits until further notice and check with you regarding any new policies or procedures you may have introduced before making appointments. We have asked them to observe the new social distancing requirements and each member of our team will be equipped with “personal protection equipment” to keep everyone as safe as possible.
Amendments to Cenvet Australia’s Supply & Credit Return Policy
For the next few months, our supply and credit return policy is being amended to cater for the current surge in demand and the increasing number of products being placed on backorder… especially for items currently in short supply such as toilet paper, hand sanitisers, masks, gloves, disinfectants and other personal protection equipment. We deem all these items as essential items.
Backorder Supply Policy
Firstly, if you place any essential item on backorder with us then you will be expected to take delivery of the backordered item when they become available to supply. We have placed large orders with several vendors in good faith to fill backorders and as soon as stock of any essential item becomes available then we will be filling those back orders accordingly.
We ask all clients to take delivery of the back ordered item when it becomes available as we are introducing a 25% cancellation fee for any essential items cancelled from backorder.
Our new backorder supply policy means you will be charged 25% of the value (25% x backordered quantity x unit price) for any essential items backordered and then cancelled more than 48 hours after first placing the item on backorder.
Restocking Fee
In addition to the cancellation fee, we have amended our credit return policy to include a 50% restocking fee for any essential item returned for credit after delivery.
Cenvet Australia is introducing this amended supply and credit return policy from today’s date as we are aware of several clients who have placed back orders with a number of suppliers (for the same product) and have informed us that once they receive the first delivery from any supplier…they intend cancelling their back orders with all the others.
Unfortunately, we can’t return product to our vendors, so we are introducing the above changes in the interest of fairness to all our clients.
Warehouse Shutdowns for Additional Cleaning
To help minimise the opportunity for any of our staff members to contract Covid-19 through work related activities, we are introducing several key measures to increase social distancing and minimise the opportunity for the virus to live long term on any work surface or high touch points in our work environments.
In the interest of the health of all our essential employees, we have made a decision to close our warehouses in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Tasmania on Friday 27th March, Friday 3rd April and Friday 24th April to allow for additional cleaning of our facilities.
We apologise if the intended course of action inconveniences your practice in any way, but we deem it necessary to help protect you, our staff and our distribution centres from a possible enforced shutdown if one of our staff members was to contract Covid-19 in the workplace.
Kind Regards,
Lionel Bloom.
CEO