Inscape’s Response to Impact of COVID-19

HOLLAND LANDING, Ontario, May 14, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Inscape (TSX: INQ), a leading designer and manufacturer of furnishings for the workplace, is providing an update on the company’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Inscape’s primary focus has been the health and well-being of our employees while keeping the business moving forward and delivering products to our customers in need.

The economic impact from COVID-19 on the global economy has been unprecedented. In anticipation of its impacts, Inscape took aggressive actions to minimize all non-essential spending while re-evaluating certain commitments to reduce the anticipated short-term impact to our cash flow. As part of this exercise, we also had to eliminate some full-time positions and temporarily furlough certain employees to achieve further savings.

We are thankful that some of our major customers who provide essential services have continued their planned purchasing and installations, but, like others in our industry, our business has been impacted by other projects that have been postponed or delayed as customers wait to evaluate the economic effects of the crisis or have been unable to take deliveries as previously contemplated.

Our two manufacturing facilities have remained in operation as per government guidelines and are following Public Health Agency of Canada, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization best practices to ensure the safety of all our employees who are required to be onsite at these facilities. Most of our office staff relating to these facilities as well as our showrooms and sales teams are working remotely and continue to support the company’s operations.

As we anticipated, additional initiatives relating to people costs are required. Inscape is now implementing a Work-Share program to include most of the salaried office staff in the company’s headquarters and anticipate similar actions will need to be taken in our walls operations in late June as part of the overall cost reduction program. Team members who cannot work a reduced work week in view of business demands will be taking a 20% salary reduction. Additionally, Inscape’s leadership team will take a 25% salary reduction while the CEO will be taking a 30% salary reduction.