2020: a year unlike any other. And what lies ahead for Jacob White in 2021?
As we step into 2021, we thought we’d take a look back over a year that has been unlike any other in our 113-year history. An exceptional year, 2020 has changed the way many of us work and communicate.
Despite the uncertainty, lockdowns and restrictions, it has been a good year for business for Jacob White overall. We have continued to provide high levels of support on the ground and the amazing team has pulled together to make sure it has been ‘business as usual’ as much as possible for our customers.
What changed for Jacob White in 2020?
At the start of the pandemic and during the first UK lockdown, we realised we were going to have to adapt – and fast. With our clients facing staff furloughs, confinement and major hygiene challenges, we knew things were going to be very different.
New machine hire service
We launched a brand new packaging machine hire service to support our clients that needed a short-term solution to aid social distancing and augment operations with reduced staffing. Initially, we used ‘spare’ machines that often went to live events and packaging industry trade fairs. Now this has grown into a robust offering that could become a permanent new service for our UK clients.
Face-to-face meetings and on-site consultations
Every packaging machine line that we implement starts with an in-depth, on-site consultation with our potential client. This is how we build a comprehensive picture of your business, your packaging needs and your existing working processes.
The challenges of 2020 meant we have had to step outside the box in terms of our communications, implementing virtual consultations, learning Zoom! as we go along and embracing new ways of communicating.
Exhibitions and trade shows
A big part of our ‘normal’ year revolves around international trade shows and events, where we showcase our packaging machines and reach out to our existing and future customers. With every event cancelled this year, we have had more time to focus on new ways we can develop new partnerships.
Learning new lessons
For us as a team, the health crisis has taught us new lessons and has changed a dynamic as we have explored new working practices to keep each other safe. It has been eye-opening and immensely rewarding to connect with each other in new ways and it has cemented our belief that support is as important an element to our business as our offerings are.
Building close relationships with our clients has always been important to us as a business. This is how we determine the packaging solutions you need, after all. However, during the pandemic, we have grown to realise that it is equally important to connect with people on a personal level too. These are valuable lessons that we are happy to carry forward into all our future business communications and feel we have grown as a team as a result.
What lies ahead for Jacob White in 2021?
With the world holding its breath for an end to the global health crisis caused by COVID-19, here at Jacob White, we know that the uncertainty will continue into 2021. A vaccine in sight and evolving treatments hold huge hope that we may at some point find a ‘new normal’.
Jacob White will continue to offer all our customers the highest levels of support – both as packaging machine experts and as people – whenever and wherever it is needed in 2021.
Founded in 1911, Jacob White is a world-leading manufacturer of packaging and cartoning machines for food and drink, hygiene, healthcare and pharmaceutical products. Our high-quality machines, renowned for their delicate product handling qualities, are all engineered in the UK and installed in more than 60 countries across the world.
For more than a century, Jacob White has been a world-leader in the manufacture of packaging and cartoning machines. Whether standard or custom-built, our machines are designed to solve even the most delicate of packaging challenges for customers in the food and drink, hygiene, healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. They are all proudly engineered at our site in the UK while our install base spans more than 5,000 sites and more than 60 countries across the world.
