Burberry Wins £500k Contract To Make PPE Equipment For The NHS

Image Courtesy of Burberry

The Castleford luxury retailer recalibrated its equipment in April to make equipment and help the Government's efforts in the fight against Covid-19.

It has now been rewarded with a £573,000 deal to make gowns and protective equipment.

The contract was not advertised to other potential suppliers, government records showed.

EU rules allow the government to circumvent the usual processes if only one supplier is capable of delivering on the contract, or if unforeseen events mean that speed is vital.

During the early days of the pandemic several luxury fashion brands turned their production lines over to make desperately needed PPE.

As part of the global effort to combat the outbreak of COVID-19, Burberry is dedicating its resources to support those impacted by the disease and prevent further infection.

By leveraging their global supply chain, supporting world-leading research and providing funding to increase food supplies,  Burberry  will help to meet the most immediate medical and community needs, while supporting the development of a longer-term solution to the global pandemic.

• Burberry   are working to facilitate the delivery of surgical masks, non-surgical masks and gowns for use by medical staff and patients.

  • Burberry   are utilising their global supply chain network to fast-track the delivery of over 100,000 surgical masks to the UK National Health Service, for use by medical staff.

  • Burberry   are retooling their trench coat factory in Castleford, Yorkshire, to make non-surgical gowns and masks for patients. Production and distribution will be subject to approval from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

• Burberry   are funding research into a single-dose vaccine developed by the University of Oxford that is on course to begin human trials next month. The University has one of the world’s best track records in emergency vaccine development, with past success in fighting Ebola and MERS.

• Burberry   are donating to charities including FareShare and The Felix Project, dedicated to tackling food poverty across the UK. With pressures mounting on food supplies, the charities are further expanding efforts to help those struggling as a result of the outbreak.

• This includes setting up community produce hubs, delivering food to young people who rely on free school meals and increasing pre-packed food parcels to help food banks cope with demand and maintain social distancing policies.

Marco Gobbetti, CEO, Burberry said of these actions: “In challenging times, we must pull together. The whole team at Burberry is very proud to be able to support those who are working tirelessly to combat COVID-19, whether by treating patients, working to find a vaccine solution or helping provide food supplies to those in need at this time. COVID-19 has fundamentally changed our everyday lives, but we hope that the support we provide will go some way towards saving more lives, bringing the virus under control and helping our world recover from this devastating pandemic. Together, we will get through this.”

Burberry has donated about 160,000 pieces of PPE to date to the NHS and healthcare charities since the pandemic started.

This has included the gowns made at its Castleford site and surgical masks that it bought abroad.

At the start of April, Health Secretary Matt Hancock praised Burberry for its help in supplying the NHS with the PPE it needed.

“I’ll give a shout-out to Burberry who have turned over their production to the production of gowns to add to the stockpile and to get PPE to people who need it which is another part of the national effort,” he said.

“I think Burberry deserve credit for what they’ve done so far for the nation and hopefully lots more Burberry gowns to come.”