Letter from the President of Arklow & District Chamber of Commerce
Dear Member,
Following on from my letter on the 20th March, I wanted to reach out to you on a number of items. But first let me say that I hope you and your family are keeping safe and well as the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve. Your safety and welfare, as well as that of our colleagues, is our priority at all times.
I would also like to recognise the efforts of the front line emergency and essential services staff who have gone above and beyond the call of duty during this pandemic. Their commitment and dedication at this time has certainly not gone unnoticed and we thank them for that.
In my last correspondence I called out that the Chamber is here to support its members in every way we can and I want to reiterate this point. The speed at which Covid 19 has impacted businesses has been unprecedented and I know this can put tremendous pressure on individuals as they try and balance the employee, customer and wider community challenges this brings. In this regard please reach out to us for support where necessary and we will do our upmost to support you.
Notwithstanding the challenges we are currently experiencing there are however a suite of supports out there from both an employer and employee point of view (We have shared many of these already and will continue to keep you up to date).
Having read through lots of the documentation that has been issued over the last 14 days I’m also conscious that it’s not always easy to understand and navigate. With this in mind I have asked Paul Lynch who is a new member of the Arklow & District Chamber to offer a free consultation to our members so he can support you with any of your questions in relation to this. Paul has held a number of CFO and Sales Director roles with organisations such as PepsiCo, Tesco and Kerry foods to name just a few and will also be well placed to handle or give support on any other challenges you may be facing at this time . Please feel free to reach out to Paul by email Paul@8020consulting.ie, (All engagement will be held in the strictest of confidence.)
While I recognise that the next number of weeks will be difficult for us all I have no doubt that we will overcome the challenges ahead. We will achieve this by working together as a business community and supporting each other in every way we can. As a chamber our aim is to promote the economic and social development of our community in order to make it a better place in which to live, work and do business and now more than ever we need to embrace this spirit of collaboration.
Finally I look forward to working with you all over the coming weeks and months and I wish you all a safe and successful journey as we navigate COVID-19.