Interket reacts to flood scare

color:black">Interket UK, part of the Interket Group of companies headquartered in Denmark, is the largest employer in Whaley Bridge located in High Peak town in Derbyshire, UK. Its manufacturing site sits below Toddbrook Reservoir holding 300 million gallons of water. Following heavy downpours on August 1, and increased flood risk, the Environment Agency raised the evacuation alarm in the area, which affected 1500 homes and businesses including Interket’s 85,000 sq ft site.

color:black">Leaving the Interket management team the unenviable task of ensuring their staff were safe and customers and suppliers informed. UK sales and operations director Tim Pattison headed up the deployment of the contingency plan along with the designated team.

color:black">‘This unprecedented event tested our staff and the wider community. Our immediate priority was to follow the instructions of the Environment Agency and evacuate the buildings whilst at the same time ensuring we instigated our three-stage contingency plan. Thankfully the potential disaster was avoided due to the hard work of the RAF, Environment Agency and Emergency Services who were outstanding,’ said Tim Pattison, UK sales and operations director at Interket.

color:black">He added: ‘From a business perspective I am very pleased with the way our business continuity procedure was deployed. We opened several channels of communication, including dedicated groups on social media channels to ensure our stakeholders were updated every step of the way. We were overwhelmed by the community support from both our local and industry networks.’

color:black">Pattison confirmed that the prior forward planning, effective teamwork and co-ordinated communication enabled the label printer to navigate through the most challenging event in its history.