At Ferrero, we have been helping the local communities in which we operate for over 70 years.

Our colleagues across the UK are passionate and dedicated to delivering our quality products to our consumers and for this we would like to thank them all.

With the ongoing case of COVID-19, it is important that we continue to protect the safety and wellbeing of our colleagues and our customers and we would like to provide you with an update on some of the measures we have taken as a business so far.

Our Factory

Food, which as per the guidelines published by the UK, falls under the critical sectors that should be maintained during the current crisis.

At Ferrero, like many other food businesses, we are still working to guarantee production continuity and ensure we are not compromising the food supply chain in the UK. We know at hard times treats can spread a little happiness for our consumers, and we are proud to be able to contribute to that.

We continue to strictly follow and apply the relevant local public authorities’ and Public Health England guidelines. Specific preventative measures already in place at our factories in the UK include:

• Strict adherence by all our colleagues regarding self-isolation protocols with paid absence in line with governmental guidelines.
• Each colleague has their temperature taken during each day, by trained medical professionals.
• Specific protective equipment has been provided to all personnel with direct external contact.
• Strictly observing social distancing guidelines. This includes social distancing signs, tapped floor markings across the factory floor, changing rooms and in our E-commerce centre. In our canteen we have table spacing and staggered break times to ensure 2 metre distancing is observed.
• Best practices to prevent coronavirus distributed to all colleagues – this includes guidelines on frequent hand washing and social distancing.
• All common areas sanitised frequently with increased cleaning colleagues on hand.
We are closely monitoring the evolving situation, and the safety of our colleagues remains our number one priority.


Thorntons Stores and Thorntons.co.uk

We voluntarily closed all our Thorntons stores and cafes for now, in advance of government direction.

Our customers can continue to access our range of Thorntons products, online through our website www.thorntons.co.uk. We have introduced contact-free home delivery for all our deliveries. This gives you and your recipients the peace of mind of no hand-to-hand contact and the driver can leave the delivery safely at your door. Where a signature is required, the delivery driver will take the first and last name of the person accepting the item and record the geolocation of the delivery. You do not need to take any action to enable this. Our couriers Hermes and Parcelforce specific delivery statements are available on their websites via the links below:

Hermes (Standard): https://new.myhermes.co.uk/coronavirus.html
Parcelforce (Next Day): https://www.parcelforce.com/coronavirus


Ferrero UK and our colleagues

We have been closely monitoring the evolving COVID-19 situation and government direction. After a thorough review the decision has been taken to start to place a proportion of our colleagues, whose roles are impacted by COVID-19, on furlough as of the 25th of March for our retail store teams, and the 6th of April for manufacturing and head office. This will help to manage our business through these difficult times.
We will be supporting colleagues with full pay until the end of April. As of the beginning of May, we will pay 80% of their salary, in excess of the Government cap.
For our manufacturing colleagues, who are playing a critical role ensuring we continue to operate the factory, we are offering an additional cash bonus to thank them for their commitment and support.
We will continue to work closely with the government to better understand how we can support our colleagues during the constant evolution of this unprecedented situation.

Ferrero and our community

Community has always been important to us and we are committed to playing our part in supporting how we can. We have already been active in suppling food banks nationally and FareShare with our products to support the vulnerable.

Like you, we have been humbled by the selflessness of our front-line workers at this challenging time. Following the outreach of staff in numerous NHS trusts, we have been supplying products across the country at this challenging time, as a token of our deep thanks and gratitude.

Through our charity partners at SSAFA, we have also donated some of our Easter Eggs to their Royal homes for the elderly to bring a smile to those in isolation.

We continue to review other ways in which we can play our part in the communities we operate in including:
• Responded immediately to a direct request from government to gift machinery from our factory to support the testing work they are doing on COVID-19.
• We have been able to donate 30,000 surgical masks to Ealing Council, for use in care homes and by home care visitors across west London and a further 10,000 surgical masks to the HSE in Ireland.

• Donated computers to our local secondary school William Perkin in Greenford, to support vulnerable students with home learning.
• Adapted our Joy of Moving corporate social responsibility (CSR) project to support communities. In partnership with the English Football League Trust, we moved our unbranded school-based program to a digital platform, that provides resource to schools and parents on keeping children active through play during lockdown. Over 1,000 schools have been involved to date.

These are hard times and we will continue to follow the advice of government, protect the safety of our colleagues and understand how we can support our industry and our communities during the constant evolution of this situation.

We would like to thank our wonderful colleagues for their hard work during this challenging time and our customers, suppliers and consumers for their continued support.