Over recent weeks, there has been a growing global concern about the outbreak of COVID-19. The World Health Organisation has now labeled it a pandemic. They have asked all those worldwide to take the utmost precaution to hinder the spread of the virus. Our Acaia employees are our top priority and we are taking the recommended precautions to both minimize the exposure and spread of the virus.
Support and Orders
Our international teams will continue to operate as normal. A number of our team members around the world already work remotely and will continue to do so.
However, during this period some shipments from our own offices may be delayed due to heightened restrictions set out by international borders.
North and South America: Our support team in Portland, OR. who repairs all of our products in the Americas, are disinfecting all items that arrive in the mail. They are also taking care to thoroughly wipe down work surfaces daily and follow other safety standards. We also offer our staff health insurance and PTO. We are working hard to address repairs in as timely a manner as always. However, due to us practicing social distancing, there will only be one person at a time repairing these products and we hope you understand if there are delays in repairs.
Asia and Europe: For all inbound and outbound shipments, our warehouse will be disinfecting all scales and other items. The outbound shipments will continue to dispatch every Wednesday and Friday. However, the transportation period may be longer than usual, especially to countries such as France, Germany, or the United Kingdom.
Acaia’s global resellers may need to change their business hours or close down in accordance with government policies to fight the epidemic. This may cause maintenance services to become temporarily unavailable. If our local resellers are unable to provide services due to the epidemic, Acaia Asia’s logistics center stands ready to provide as much assistance as possible.
Manufacturing
Our factory staff is also following top hygiene protocols. All parts that are received from suppliers are being fully sanitized. Our team are also screened for signs of the virus and requested to follow local health regulations.
Events
We are also keeping a close watch on all upcoming events within the coffee industry. Our staff’s health and safety will always be our top priority. At the time of publishing this post, Expo in Portland has not been postponed. We have decided not to require attendance from our team members to Expo and not manage a booth. This is a difficult decision to make for us since Expo is an important event for us to connect with partners and the greater coffee community. If they’d like to, our team members can make a personal decision to attend and still have their expenses covered.
We strongly urge the Oregon Travel Board and the Portland Convention Center to consider the WHO pandemic status, and Oregon’s ban on events greater than 250 people, and CDC’s recommendation to cancel events greater than 50 people to extend this policy to SCA Expo. This event brings in over 12,000 coffee professionals from all over the world. With the current European travel bans in place and travel advisories from significant coffee purchasing countries like Korea, Japan, and Italy, it stands to reason that the event will not be as well attended as it could be. A postponement would not only mean a better public health scenario for everyone, including the venue staff, but also a greater influx of attendance. This attendance also will considerably benefit the local cafes and restaurants alike.
As announced by the SCA, World of Coffee Warsaw and MICE are now rescheduled and we will be attending at the new dates.
We have temporarily suspended sponsorships for events. There are quite a few mandates around the world that are banning large gatherings. Because of these and the flux nature of the mandates, we will not be reviewing sponsorship requests for the next two weeks.
We appreciate the understanding and support of our resellers and customers at this time. We encourage those reading to take care of themselves and ensure the safety and health of those around them.
We will update this blog post as additional news comes in.