Ibstock decided to suspend all manufacturing operations on 24th March, the morning after the lockdown was announced, and furloughed many of its 2,300 employees.
It is now phasing manufacturing back in, according to demand.
So far, Ibstock has restarted operations at a third of its manufacturing sites, where there is insufficient inventory to meet nascent demand. These have mostly been concrete plants. Ibstock Concrete comprises the Forticrete, Supreme and Anderton concrete brands; it also bought Longley Concrete last year for £14m.
Certain brick manufacturing sites will start working again from this week – mid-May, the company said. It entered the Covid-19 shutdown period with ‘healthy’ brick inventories, it said, so had stocks to meet current reduced demand.
“The group will keep levels of demand under close review and has plans in place to restart operations at further manufacturing sites over the coming months, in response to customer demand,” the board said.
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