Bailey of Bristol fully re-opens for business in the second phase of its COVID-secure return to work programme

Bailey of Bristol is pleased to announce as of Monday 17th August it will be fully re-opening for business in the second phase of its COVID-secure return to work programme.

The company’s operations were suspended during March in response to the Government directive relating to the prevention of the spread of COVID-19 virus. Although the business was in lockdown members of key departments continued to work remotely to ensure that we continued to maintain contact with our Customers, Retailers and Supplier Partners since then.

In June, following the announcement that Caravan and Motorhome Retailers in the UK could open their doors again, Bailey also started up parts of its operation again, including our PRIMA Leisure Parts & Accessories business, to provide essential support for our Retailers and their Customers.

Now, five months since lockdown began, Bailey is in a position to fully re-open and re-commence production of its caravans and motorhomes.

This will be the second part of a phased return to work programme which, based upon current guidance, will ensure Bailey staff will remain as safe as possible at all times. The company has undertaken detailed risk assessments across all three of its sites and has introduced new working practices covering hygiene, social distancing and the use of personal protective equipment to ensure the working environment is and will remain fully COVID-secure.

The company has also used the time during the lockdown period to review its manufacturing operations in order to make them more efficient and more accurate moving forwards. As a consequence we will now be building both caravans and motorhomes in a single production line. Key to this has been the introduction of a new automotive style approach to the management of the flow of materials to the assembly line which in turn will improve productivity and reduce inventory costs

Ever since the Retailer Network re-opened customer demand for both caravans and motorhomes has been very strong. As a consequence, every vehicle previously held at the Bailey factory has now been sold and the Network stocks have reduced by 40%. Encouragingly, of these sales two thirds have been made to customers either returning to caravans or motorhome holidays or trying them for the first time, which is great news not only for the future well-being of the company but the industry as a whole.

Appetite from Retailers for new product deliveries is therefore now very high and subsequently we believe that this is the right time to begin manufacturing again. In order to do so we have worked very closely with our Supplier partners to ensure that they are also in a position to provide us with all the components required to build complete leisure vehicles.

For everyone’s safety the company sites will remain closed to visitors without a prior appointment and communication with staff working on the premises will continue to be restricted to e-mail at present. The main telephone switchboard will re-open on Tuesday 1st September.

Please use the following contacts for enquiries to the relevant departments:

• General enquiries: [email protected]
• Finance enquiries: [email protected]
• Sales enquiries: [email protected]
• Marketing enquiries: [email protected]
• Parts and Accessories enquiries: [email protected]

Commenting on the situation Bailey Managing Director Nick Howard

“Life after lockdown will be difficult to predict, however with international travel restrictions likely to remain in place for some time it looks as though the boom in domestic tourism is set to continue. We, as a business, need to be in a position to satisfy any future growth in demand and consequently believe that the time is now right for us to begin manufacturing our leisure vehicles again in a controlled fashion.”

“Throughout these unprecedented times, the health and safety of our employees has and will continue to be, paramount. Consequently we make this decision only after the implementation of a series of new working practices that ensure Bailey will remain a safe place to work”.

Finally he added “We would like to thank all our Customers, Retailers and Supplier Partners for their continued support and understanding in the face of this unprecedented challenge”.