To our valued customers,

As you are all aware, the impact of Omicron continues, and all NZ businesses are affected.

We are doing everything we possibly can to mitigate the effect on our production capacity and DIFOT. We are RAT-testing ALL staff nationwide every day to reduce the likelihood of infection at our worksites.

Our teams are working overtime to try and keep us on track, so our lead times don’t extend beyond what is acceptable to us and to you, our customers.

Continuing labour shortages at the ports and in our domestic transport operators due to positive RATs and self-isolation of staff as household members is also hampering our efforts to supply.

Over the past 12-18 months, we have experienced significantly longer lead times from our overseas suppliers which combined with a shortage of containers, difficulties with booking vessels, and vessels being rerouted to other ports has thrown more than a few challenges our way! That is why we took the decision over a year ago to considerably increase our purchases and hold substantially more stock to minimise the risk of stockouts and production downtime.

By and large this strategy has worked, however, as more and more of our staff are off work, which is likely to continue throughout the month of March and possibly April, it is likely that our productivity is going to be hurt.

Please be assured that we will do our level best to ease the impact on you but we would ask for your patience and understanding should our staff inform you of delays until the Omicron situation settles.

To help us out during this time, please consider:

• Online ordering via our website - www.rtl.co.nz (we can set you up with web access - this is super easy!)
• Place orders well in advance, especially any large orders

Should you have any specific concerns, please feel free to contact our team for more information.

Thank you for your continuing support.

Kind regards,

Joanne McMahon

General Manager