Wilson & Gilkes Meets Covid-19 Challenge

The Covid-19 crisis has pointed a mi­cro­scope on the fragility of Australia’s domestic man­u­fac­tur­ing ca­pa­bil­i­ty. Wilson & Gilkes, proudly an Aus­tralian en­gi­neer­ing and man­u­fac­tur­ing company, was recently given a chance to demon­strate some of the ad­van­tages of having that homegrown ca­pa­bil­i­ty, when a large retailer sought to fit out its hundreds of outlets na­tion­wide with point of sale safety screens.

The call came through from the Mills Group which supplies and man­u­fac­tures a range of shop­fit­ting and signage es­sen­tials, with clients all across the retail sector.

The screen required a steel bracket the Mills Group needed to outsource — hence the call to Wilson & Gilkes.

“Due to the need for retailers to protect their staff and customers from the risks of Covid-19 as quickly as possible, this project required delivery in in­cred­i­bly tight time­frames,” explains a Mills Group rep­re­sen­ta­tive. “So we needed Wilson & Gilkes to be re­spon­sive.”

Which it most certainly was. Wilson & Gilkes worked with the Mills Group to quickly turn around bracket pro­to­types, sometimes within hours.

“Wilson & Gilkes supported us in that de­vel­op­ment process,” reports the Mills Group. “And the project was able to get to the very critical roll out phase extremely quickly as a result.”

Within 10 days, Wilson & Gilkes fulfilled the order for thousands of brackets, an essential component of the safety screen package freighted around the country and installed on site by the retailer.

“The Mills Group’s execution of the retailer’s re­quire­ment was frankly, spec­tac­u­lar, given the design, in­stal­la­tion and logistics chal­lenges,” noted Wilson & Gilkes CEO, James Hunt. “And I’m equally proud of what our company was able to achieve. Few could have met the Mills Group time frame, but thanks to our local man­u­fac­tur­ing ca­pa­bil­i­ty and expertise, our team could respond.

“The Covid19 crisis has il­lus­trat­ed how exposed our country’s supply chain is to dis­rup­tion. We un­der­stand that the budget of many projects ne­ces­si­tate an offshore supply solution. That said, the crisis high­lights the need for business and gov­ern­ment to consider, in a post Covid-19 economy, the benefits of a dual Aus­tralian and China supply strategy for ap­pro­pri­ate goods.”

Mills Group: www.mills­group.com.au or (02) 9997 1000