PoS business SDi switches focus to supply retailers with hygiene equipment

• The PoS specialist has been manufacturing face guards, protective screens and hand sanitiser stations

• Its retail partners include Tesco, M&S, Boots and Dixons Carphone

Tesco, M&S and Boots have turned to a Midlands-based PoS and visual merchandising display specialist to help protect staff and customers during the coronavirus pandemic.

SDi has pivoted the focus of its business from PoS to a new range of end-to-end hygiene products for retail customers.

The Leicestershire business has manufactured 260,000 face guards for use by retail staff, along with more than 10,000 pharmacy and checkout protective screens for Boots and M&S.

It is currently producing 1,500 hand sanitiser stations for Tesco, Dixons Carphone and other retail partners.

SDi has also signed an official collaboration agreement with Addmaster to give it the capability to embed ‘Biomaster’ technology into all of its products, providing an additional ‘antimicrobial’ barrier to prevent bacteria and viruses growing on surfaces.

“We have always been a close partner to the retail sector and have been in constant discussions with them during the pandemic,” said SDi retail sales director Matt Evans.

“The conversations were mainly focused around protecting staff and customers who are working and shopping, so we immediately sprang into action to meet this challenge.

“Our specialist designers and production experts came up with a range of hygiene products that could solve some of these challenges, starting with protective face guards and then quickly evolving into pharmacy/checkout screens and hand sanitiser stations.”

He added: “Manufacturing lines were adapted to ensure we could provide a single-source solution from start to finish. We’re talking volumes in the tens of thousands, maybe eventually hundreds of thousands.

“These products will help to protect people and potentially save lives, so, put simply, retailers couldn’t wait six weeks for them to come from overseas suppliers.”

SDi, which is also in the process of supplying 1.6 million visors to the NHS, has more than 40 years’ experience of creating, making and fitting point of sale and visual merchandising displays.

Evans said: “There is definitely a feeling that more businesses are starting to make plans about how they reopen when the lockdown eventually eases, and hygiene will be at the forefront of their thoughts.”