Coronavirus update – the latest news from Yorkshire businesses

National homebuilder Keepmoat Homes is showing its support for the NHS by using its website, social media channels and digital assets to advertise the Government’s stay-at-home message.

The Doncaster-based company has updated its social channels, replacing its Keepmoat Homes logo with a new Keep Home logo.

Keepmoat Homes’ CEO Tim Beale said: “The ‘Stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives’ message cannot be overstated.

“So, during these challenging times, to remind people that keeping well means staying at home, we are using our name and a new logo to drive home the #KeepHome message.

“Our website, social channels and digital communications are seen by millions of people across the UK every week, so we are using these assets to promote the stay-at-home message to help support, and ultimately protect, the NHS.”

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One of Driffield’s biggest employers is lending its support to its rural community by supporting businesses and donating chicken.

Middleton-on-the-Wolds firm Soanes Poultry helped fellow family business, Rafters when it donated a van and a driver so its team could satisfy deliveries for online orders.

Commenting on Twitter on Soanes’ generosity, Andy Rafter said: “We cannot thank you all enough for the kind gesture of helping us out today with these deliveries across East Yorkshire and Driffield. We are blessed to be surrounded by such fantastic people.”

Ben Lee, head of sales and marketing at the 73-year-old chicken business has also marked the company’s appreciation of those caring for the elderly and vulnerable by donating a total of 180 chickens to the staff at the town’s care homes – The Limes and Riverhead Hall.

Further afield, Soanes Poultry is making a free weekly delivery of chicken to Hull-based charity EMS Ltd that works with residents, community groups and local businesses in Hull, East Yorkshire, North and North East Lincolnshire to alleviate food and fuel poverty.

The business is also buying hand sanitiser for its delivery drivers from Thixendale spirits business Raisthorpe Manor.

Lee said: “Our rural communities are the life blood of our business. We employ local people and sell our award winning chicken to local, family run independent shops, so we’re proud that we are able to support these communities when times are challenging.”

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A Sheffield-based auction business has staged its first ever online auction to comply with the COVID-19 lockdown.

Mark Jenkinson and Son’s first event of this kind saw 86% of lots sold for a total of more than £1.5m.

The auction had been planned for the usual venue of Sheffield United’s Platinum Suite, but was switched to an online event to ensure the “absolute priority” of staff, client and public safety.

Adrian Little, head of the Auction Department at Mark Jenkinson and Son, said: “As we all adapt to the current pandemic, we are acting on Government recommendations for safeguarding.

“After Government lockdown and travel restrictions, social distancing measures, and temporary closures of our offices in Sheffield and Chesterfield, we needed to carefully advise our clients as to the best way forward which led to April’s online only auction.

“Our absolute priority was the safety of our staff, clients and the public and setting the right example as we, like other businesses, adapt our working practices during these unprecedented circumstances.

“We gave clients the option to postpone their lots, look to sell prior or proceed to the online bidding platform available via our website.

“This resulted in 21 of the lots being offered, 18 of which sold in what was a very busy auction and our very first online event.

“We will continue to monitor and observe Government guidelines and restrictions during COVID-19 ahead of our auctions going forward, and will return to our traditional events only once safe to do so.”

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Thousands of face visors to keep Sheffield’s frontline NHS workers safe in the fight against Covid-19 are being made by a team at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. (AMRC)

The team is working around the clock to rapidly manufacture and assemble the essential face shields.

Engineers from the AMRC’s Design and Prototyping Group (DPG) have responded to the national call to produce more Personal Protective Equipment for healthcare workers by using technologies such as 3D printing and laser cutting to make up to 1,000 face visors per week.

The shop floor at the AMRC’s Design and Prototyping Testing Centre has been transformed into an assembly production line and the team worked over the Easter weekend to deliver the first batch of 934 protective face shields to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital on Easter Monday.

It plans to deliver an additional 1,000 visors to the Northern General Hospital by next week.

Joe Palmer, senior design and development engineer, said the team has coordinated its efforts with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to ensure visors are delivered to the local hospitals with the greatest need.

He said: “We know these visors are needed now and not in a few weeks’ time, so we’re really pleased we were able to get almost 1,000 out of the door by Monday and into the hands of the frontline NHS workers who so desperately need them to stay protected as they battle this deadly virus to save lives.

“The AMRC is so grateful to those who have stepped up to help. It’s not just been technical staff from the design team – we’ve had everyone from receptionists, composites engineers and senior project managers volunteer to help with the assembly.

“The manufacture of these visors has required an enormous amount of effort from a great many people and I want to thank everyone involved.

“People have been working in shifts for the past 12 days, working over the Easter weekend and on Easter Monday to make sure we could get this crucial kit to healthcare workers.”

Palmer, who also teaches the next generation of engineers at the AMRC Training Centre, pulled together a group to see how the AMRC could help meet the national need by using advanced manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing, also known as additive manufacture (AM).

He explained: “There has been a lot of activity going on behind the scenes to make this happen, with great support from the AMRC’s health and safety team to ensure all the correct guidelines were being met to keep staff safe.

“It’s not been as simple as print-and-go. A number of designs have been released freely on the internet and we tried a variety of different ones, eventually deciding on three which we can make quite quickly.

“Over the past week the focus has been on getting the materials together. The bottleneck has been getting hold of the clear film material for the actual visor, which is called PETG.

“There is very little material available for those who can manufacture in large volumes, organisations such as the AMRC.

“Fortunately we managed to source some of that visor material last Thursday which allowed us to start assembly at the weekend and we have some more due to arrive this week so we can continue with production to help other hospitals.”

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Leeds based Tech start-up The Data City has joined Roll Royce led Emer2gent Alliance, alongside Leeds Institute for Data Analytics, IBM, Truata, and ODI Leeds to provide open data on the impact and recovery of the worlds businesses through the Covid-19 crisis period.

The Data City collects and processes huge amounts of open data and is analysing the Covid-19 impact statements of the UKs business base to provide vital data to our government and other interested parties on how to measure and direct assistance to UK businesses throughout this crisis. Starting in the UK we will then be working to replicate this data for all of the worlds’ major economies recognising that we really are all in this together.

Alex Craven Co-founder of The Data City said “This is a huge undertaking for our team as we start by analysing over 800,000 UK business websites to understand what they are saying about the impact of the crisis on their organisation. We will be using our Machine Learning platform to enable granular analysis of how different sectors are affected, which sectors are recovering quickly and which are most in need of help. We’ll be publishing this as open data to the Emer2gent Alliance as a weekly update to enable economic policy decision makers to see how things are changing over time.”